Institution Mission and Goals, Planning and Effectiveness Introduction 1.A Mission and Goals Analysis and Appraisal 1.A.1 The institution’s mission and goals derive from, or are widely understood by, the campus community, are adopted by the governing board, and are periodically reexamined. The mission, goals and values are well understood by the members of the President’s Staff. And the mission and values are widely understood by the college community in part because they were involved it the forming of the values statements.
2007-2010 Mission and Strategic Plan Development Timeline
Date
Action
Jan. 11, 2007
2007-2010 College Strategic Plan adopted by Board.
March 7-13,2007
Steve Wall’s Educational Planning External Scan administered.
April 2007
College hosted forums that gathered staff and faculty input in to the process of identifying the college’s values.values grid in April 2007
May 9 & 10, 2007
Two day retreat held at Hawks Prairie that included forty representatives from all service and programs areas including students, faculty, staff and the Board of Trustees.
May-June, 2007
Smaller group met to develop a focused, prioritized plan to direct the future work of the college.
June 2007
Draft of plan was published for review by the college community. Review continued over the summer of 2007.
Fall 2007
Draft presented to the college community.
December 13, 2007
Final draftof the college’s mission, values, and goals was presented to the Board of Trustees for first reading and adoption
December 2007- June 2008
Strategy teams were formed to identify initiatives, attach new or existing measures to objectives, and establish baselines to ensure accountability and efficiency. Work included: Defining the mission, considering and prioritizing multiple objectives, listing of shared values that informed the priority of the objectives, creating consensus in current Strategic Plan
Spring 2008
Final strategic plan, was presented to the community in the Spring 2008 Soundings
2009-2010
Strategic plan will be reexamined according to the College’s three-year review cycle.
However, the goals and objectives are less well understood by many in the wider College community with some exceptions: staff and faculty who request professional development funds, equipment or staff positions or staff and faculty who serve on decision-making committees such as the Equipment Budget Committee and College Council. These members of the college community build their rationale or make their decisions based upon the strategic plan. (We may need some concrete data from the surveys to make this statement)
1.A.2 The mission, as adopted by the governing board, appears in appropriate institutional publications, including the catalog. The mission, goals and objectives are published in the college catalog (09-10 College Catalog , p2), and on the College website, the mission and values are published on the “Welcome to South Puget Sound” page and the entire Strategic Plan is published on the Administration page.
Annual Strategic Priority 2008-2009
2008-2009 Responsible Group
Assessment/Results/Action
Respond to the increasing demand for online and hybrid offerings
Instruction Department
Increased online/hybrid offering from 172 to 450, a 133 % increase. Hired E-Learning manager to support faculty and manage offerings
Implement systematic academic assessment that evaluates student learning outcomes in major program areas and in general education
College-wide abilities rubric developed, piloted, and incorporated in 2007-2009 assessment projects. (add link to accreditation web page when available)
Develop and implement a strategic enrollment management plan (SEM)
Student Services,Instruction
Created and implemented strategic enrollment management plan that has resulted in significant progress toward increasing enrollment.(link to Progress report sent to Stacy 11/16/09)
Address community and business environmental changes through dynamic planning
Advisory Committees, Workforce Development, Center for Continuous Learning, President’s staff, Deans
Gather input from advisory committees on what programs best fit the changing market place.Created two new certificate programs based on input, _.Created short term, intensive worker retraining programs in order to respond to immediate needs.Repackaged business and industry training in shorter offerings to match training department budget restraints.
Systematically assess and improve processes and procedures
All
Revised equipment allocation process using electronic resources.
Develop and implement a marketing plan
College Relations
Design and implement a staffing model that supports efficient and accessible operations.
Implement a systematic instructional program review process that integrates academic assessment and planning and influences resource allocation.
ARC
Created a Program/Service review document in Spring 2009, piloted in Summer 2009, revised and annual schedule for review created for three year cycles.
1.A.3 Progress in accomplishing the institution’s mission and goals is documented and made public. Progress toward accomplishing the College’s mission and goals is documented through reports to the Board 1.A.4 Goals are determined consistent with the institution’s mission and its resources - human, physical, and financial. Goals are consistent with the college's mission and its human, physical, and financial resources. College's goals -- student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability -- are consistent with its mission of "engaging our community in learning . . . for life" focusing on college values: 1.pursues excellence 2.operates in an atmosphere of accountability and respect 3.accepts responsibilities to the communities we serve 4.fosters inclusiveness at our campuses 5.provides student-centered education The College's goals--to support student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability--are consistent with its resources. ·Human Resources: oHiring (see Hiring Process and Screening Committee Handbook) and staffing oRequests professional development oFulltime faculty prioritization process and scoring rubrics tied to and consistent with objectives, strategic plan and Strategic Enrollment Management plan (see Resource Room). ·Physical Resources: oGrounds, buildings, building utilization and levels of maintenance (see Master Plan). oPriority scheduling policy of classes first while other requests delayed until after 10th class day. ·Financial Resources: and resource allocation processes: oBudget development oEquipment prioritization process is tied to and consistent with goals and tied to mission/goals/strategies, and the results of criteria-based scores are recorded. oBudget reduction process through the College Council was transparent and c Overall the strategies outlined in Strategic Plan connect the mission/goals to the resources and the processes of resource allocation.
1.A.5 The institution’s mission and goals give direction to all its educational activities, to its admission policies, selection of faculty, allocation of resources, and to planning. The interviews with President Pumphrey and all of the VP's made clear that the mission and goals (objectives/strategies) are giving direction to the senior administration. All spoke of the annual strategic priorities as drivers of their work and regular meetings as feedback sessions, and they spoke of tying the work of their service or program areas to these priorities.
· VP for Instruction uses the mission and goals to drive the work of the academic deans and directors and the various committees and councils that she chairs;
· The VP for Students uses the Strategic Plan to guide the work of Student Services and the annual strategic priorities to allocate resources;
· The VP for Administration uses it to manage the financial resources of the College and to direct the work of the administrative services.
There is ample evidence that the annual strategic priorities for 2008-2009 (below) provided direction for decision-making committees and councils. What is less certain is the extent to which knowledge of these priorities filters down the hierarchy. (Here we need to provide information that suggests the lack of “widely understood” knowledge)
1.A.6 Public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. The College’s public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. Classified staff, faculty and administrators are involved in a wide range of charitable and community and service organizations including: Rotary club memberships, Thurston Chamber of Commerce member, OLT Visitor & Convention Bureau member, United Way, and many others.The college also provides service to the community by providing co-sponsored activities and services. ·Activities: Expanding your Horizons, Latino Youth Summit, parenting lecture series, art gallery space, Thurston County Food Bank Drive Host, Olympia World Affairs Council Banquet Host, Combined Fund Drive, and Annual Christmas Drive for Toys for needy children. ·Services: Small Business Council, Dental Clinic, Olympia Chamber Orchestra co-sponsor member 1.A.7 The institution reviews with the Commission, contemplated changes that would alter its mission, autonomy, ownership or locus of control, or its intention to offer a degree at a higher level than is included in its present accreditation, or other changes in accordance with Policy A-2 //Substantive Change// During the 2008-2009 academic year the College as represented by Vice President for Instruction sought approval from the Commission on two occasions: to offer an Associate in Arts degree entirely online and to rename the professional/technical degrees Associate of Applied Science (AAS or AAS-T). (link needed?) Strengths Strengths:
· Informed sense of direction.
Upper management shares a clear vision of the Mission and Goals of the college. They work together well as a team and use this vision to direct the work of those in their different areas of the College.
· Data is used to drive decisions.
The Office of Institutional Research collects and provides data that is examined by decision-makers and used to give direction to activities and to allocate resources.
· Staff, faculty and administrators understand and are committed to the mission of community colleges and this College.
A large and diverse group participated in revising the Strategic plan and in shaping the Mission and Values.
Challenges · Goals, Objectives and Strategies are not well understood by staff and faculty.
Staff, faculty and community members were involved in creating the revised Mission and Values but were less involved in developing the Goals, Objectives and Strategies and the process for developing these was less transparent. How the Values inform the Goals, Objectives and Strategies is not clear. The administration has a solid understanding of how these drive decisions and communicates this connection; however, the language of Goals, Objectives and Strategies isn’t widely recognized when communicated to the campus and community at large. A general vision of the Goals and Values is not adequate to unify the College in its efforts.
· Strategic Priorities are not well understood by staff and faculty.
The College community lacks information about the specific Strategic Priorities that are set each year by President’s Staff and therefore do not recognize reports of progress when they are communicated. Staff and faculty involved in planning and implementing at the program/service level may not always understand, as directors and deans do, how their work is tied to these annual Priorities.
· Mission and Goals are not visible on campus.
Many of the hard copies posted on campus are out-of-date and current copies are not readily available to the College Community at large. Though posted on the Administration page on the campus website, this link is buried in layers of links.
Future Direction/Recommendations · Explicitly and regularly communicate Goals, Objectives and Strategies and progress on each in order to help them become more recognizable to stakeholders.
· Communicate the Annual Strategic Priorities and the progress toward them to the campus community.
· Increase the visibility of the Strategic Plan on and off campus.
1.B Planning and Effectiveness Analysis and Appraisal The institution engages in ongoing planning to achieve its mission and goals. It also evaluates how well, and in what ways, it is accomplishing its mission and goals and uses the results for broad based, continuous planning and evaluation. Through its planning process, the institution asks questions, seeks answers, analyzes itself, and revises its goals, policies, procedures, and resource allocation. 1.B.1 The institution defines its evaluation and planning processes clearly. It develops and implements procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals. This is true of the evaluations of personnel at the college (student, peer, supervisory). However, the process of evaluating programs and services is under way, and there is current conversation about the evaluation of our College processes. (here we will use a table with list of evaluation and planning processes, who does it and schedule~ it will include· Online classes –both the technology and the instruction—are in the queue for a more clearly defined process. ELearning evaluation will be built into all of the online classes.)
The College defines its planning processes clearly. This was true of the previous strategic plan and is under development for the next plan. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan. · It planned its budget reduction, capital improvements, the large equipment prioritization and the fulltime faculty prioritization process clearly. This is also true for the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. The planning process for the business office ??? is it clearly defined?
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help indicate the extent to which the College is meeting its goals. The President’s Staff developed Annual Strategic Priorities to focus the College’s efforts on eight of its identified strategies and increase its accountability. These eight priorities are assigned to the vice presidents for implementation, and the progress toward achievement is reported regularly in staff meetings. Here we should refer to the annual strategic priorities, identify how they were chosen, and how the progress was reported in the staff meetings. (In progress ~Mary Soltman is working on refining this)
1.B.2 __The institution engages in systematic planning for, and evaluation of, its activities, including teaching, research, and public service consistent with institutional mission and goals. The College uses the Mission and Goals intentionally in its planning and evaluation of activities. It engages on a fairly regular basis, though this is most true of the Annual Strategic Priorities. The systematic planning and evaluation is evident in most areas of the College in response to problems (example?)The College, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service Review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a three-year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the Strategic Plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community. Evaluation of the faculty -- adjunct, full-time probationary and tenured -- uses multiple indices and is systematic.Insert adjunct process here.Probationary faculty participate in a rigorous and regimented probationary review process and tenured faculty are required to participate in a five-year review process including evaluation from students, colleagues and other self-evaluation activities.Class scheduling is planned and evaluated (proof?) systematically and the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan regularly reviews student enrollment patterns within the context of the service area’s diverse communities.In addition, the CCSE was facilitated and the results shared with the campus community and used for planning.Graduate & Employer Surveys are regularly conducted to assess the degree to which graduates are meeting the needs of employers.College committees such as Instructional Council and Assessment Research Council systematically plan and evaluate activities.Capital Facilities Master Plan reviews facility requests and design on the goals of student centeredness and effective, efficient, and fiscally accountable operations.IT Strategic Plan is consistent with the mission and goals, but not yet evaluated. Research is not a priority of the College, but the small research projects in anthropology and psychology were approved as consistent with the mission and goals. Some public service activities are evaluated based upon goals and mission, but the system or overview of public service may not be systematically planned for or evaluated.Many of the community service activities sponsored by the College(link) seem to be initiated by programs, departments, faculty or staff rather than driven by administrative priorities.(We need to know more about what we do or choose not to do for public service). 1.B.3 The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties. The governance system at SPSCC supports the college’s mission, values, strategic directions and learning outcomes. The stakeholders (Board of Trustees, students, classified staff, faculty and the exempt /administrative staff members) have a role to play in the college’s governance system. (Governance Model link)
“The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.” (Coats)
The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituent group. More members of the staff are involved in the College’s decision-making processes. In 2008, for the first time, State mandated budgetary reductions were discussed at length by the President of the College, members of the Administration and the College Council.As a result, the college community was asked to present their ideas for cost savings. These ideas were sorted by the Administration, reviewed and prioritized by the Council, and implemented as prioritized. An annual small equipment budgeting process was established in 2007 whereby administrators, classified staff and faculty meet together to evaluate and prioritize campus-wide requests for small equipment from a central pool 2008-2009 Equipment Allocation Process. Another example of this improvement is that of the faculty hiring prioritization committee. Members included the Instructional Vice President, Division Deans and faculty. Rationales for filing positions were presented through proposal packets and a vote of the membership determined which positions were filled. The College’s values of operating in an atmosphere of accountability and respect, accepting responsibilities to the communities we serve, and fostering inclusiveness, drive the participatory nature of its planning. This is evident in the planning process for the Campus Center , the Enrollment Management Team, the Assessment & Research Councils, the development of the Program Review process, regularly conducted open forums, and strategic planning which includes board members, students and community representatives.
1.B.4
The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
In 2005 there was ashift from a formula-driven budgeting process to a process driven by institutional prioritization (McKinney).The College has been using the results of evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
·This is evident in the 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard Two that outlines how the institution has used the results of _ and _ to increase online offerings and support and to establish the rationale for large equipment purchases and fulltime faculty hiring prioritization. ·The single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies. ·Student Services uses the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop its action plans and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid. The 2008 CCSSE indicated that those services had improved and inspired Student Services to continue that level of service. ·College-wide program/service review will inform prioritization of hiring and equipment ·(We need to include here the evaluation of college/classroom climate incidences and progress toward respect for diversity ) ·Prior 2009-2010 these efforts had been systematic in that they are planned and scheduled, but are not College- wide. To achieve the system-wide use of the evaluation data and planning activities, the College has instituted and implemented a Program and Service Review process that will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus, and the results will be used to influence allocation and improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified. Then a schedule based on a three-year review cycle was developed. This process systematizes and complements the existing evaluation and processes identified above. (Note: LS is still working on this)
1. B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement. The Annual Strategic Priorities/Initiatives which are based on the Strategic Plan use data from the community survey, the CCSSE report, the Fact Book results, the Diversity Plan, (future) Program Review documents, This process is done each _ by a group consisting of.These priorities are then distributed by _ to . In 2008 the college brought in George Copa to lead a cross campus committee through an evaluation and planning process for an integrated Student Services, E-Learning, and Library building. This process used a technique that built a shared vision for the building upon the shared values of the staff, community and students. This process will be used to help the institution create ownership of the results and give a more comprehensive plan for others to implement. (Note: NR is working on this).
1.B.6 The institution provides the necessary resources for effective evaluation and planning processes. The College has been very fiscally supportive of all institutional research efforts. Since Feb. 2007 the College’s funding for Institutional Research has supported one fulltime position and supplies, travel, etc. However, those resources were not adequate to support the research necessary for overall institutional evaluation. To provide more information for evaluation and planning, the College has allocated additional funds to purchase survey instruments, materials and software (CCSSE, Graduate Survey, etc.). In addition, the College has provided funds for the professional development of the institutional researcher and hired support staff. (add references to information packets Darby provides to programs and departments)
The college engages the community in college wide strategic planning, developing a Strategic Plan and subsequent goals and objectives. The Strategic Plan seeds divisional level planning and college plans to address budget, facilities, equipment, enrollment, technology, curriculum, and research. (add reference to plan documents such as Facilities Master Plan, Equipment process, curriculum and the like.) The College Council, President’s Staff, and Board of Trustees assess the planning process and plans ensuring consistency with the college mission and goals. (Reference to College Council minutes?) Annual program/department service/program reviews provide opportunity for in-depth evaluation every few years and support for accreditation cycle reviews. Each department/program reviews its coincidence with college goals, demands, support services, budget, and outcomes. (see program/service review templates). Changes are made each year to help ensure continuous improvement.
The accreditation self-study process provides opportunities to assess program/department effectiveness of the evaluation, planning, budgeting processes connected to the college Strategic Plan. The self-study focuses on an in-depth appraisal of all department/programs. Recommendations from previous accreditation studies are incorporated into the college planning process modifying or supporting institution-level goals and objectives. The College has been very fiscally supportive of all institutional research efforts. Since Feb. 2007 the College’s funding for Institutional Research has supported one fulltime position and supplies, travel, etc. However, those resources were not adequate to support the research necessary for overall institutional evaluation. To provide more information for evaluation and planning, the College has allocated additional funds to purchase survey instruments, materials and software (CCSSE, Graduate Survey, etc.). In addition, the College has provided funds for the professional development of the institutional researcher and hired support staff. The extra support staff has been invaluable for the development of the institutional research support that is given to the instructional programs. For example, a standardized data report was created in Spring of 2009 for each program called an Instructional Program Institutional Research (IPIR) Report. This report contains individualized enrollment, completions, retention, transfer and employment information, and course pattern summaries. The final page of this report is a graphical representation of the most recent data gathered for current assessment plans. The data in this report has helped individual programs understand thedetails of their program and make plans for new assessment activities, and it will also be used in program review. The development of this report was complex and time consuming and could not have been accomplished without the newly hired support staff. (from Darby)
1.B.7 The institution’s research is integrated with and supportive of institutional evaluation and planning. The institution’s research is integrated with and supportive of institutional evaluation and planning.
Institutional research is entirely integrated with evaluation and planning. IR’s purpose is to look for the answers to the questions “how are we doing” and “how could we be doing things better.” IR is the primary data source for information about the ongoing operation of the college, and that data has been used in multiple ways for evaluation and planning. The following chart offers examples. 1.B.8 The institution systematically reviews its institutional research efforts, IR evaluation processes, and its planning activities to document their effectiveness. The data and reports from Institutional Research are reviewed regularly as a result of presentations to the College’s many stakeholders: Master Planning Group, Strategic Enrollment Management Core Oversight Group, Board of Trustees, Presidents Staff, Assessment,Research Council, and Instructional Programs. Furthermore, the personnel in the office undergo regular exempt and classified staff evaluations using the standard forms.
The College-wide Program/Service Area Review documents the effectiveness of IR’s research, evaluation and planning.
Group or Project Name
Type of Data
Purpose
Accreditation Support
Surveys
Support self-study
Assessment Guideline for ARC
Assessment data
Assist development of a common framework for assessment
Core Indicator Summary & Fact Book
Institutional indicators
Identify trends, patterns, demographics Determine “health” of the college Inform the Board of Trustees, College community and the report to the public
Department or Service Areas Surveys (i.e. IT, Student Senate, Sustainability Committee)
Original research: quantitative & qualitative data
Plan and evaluate Customer satisfaction
Master Planning
Enrollment data
Plan size of Hawks/Marvin road campus Plan parking on Mottman campus
Program Review
Enrollment, demographic, completions
Help programs and services complete required review documentation
Strategic Enrollment Management Plan-Core Oversight Group
Develop strategic plan Track progress on annual strategic priorities
1.B.9 The institution uses information from its planning and evaluation processes to communicate evidence of institutional effectiveness to its public. The College community receives evidence of institutional effectiveness in an annual State of the College address and through e-mailed communiqués and all-staff meetings. These communications include information from the College’s planning and evaluation processes and discuss results of any surveys and studies conducted.However, as discussed earlier, the information may not be recognized as evidence of institutional progress.College Council’s new formation provides college-wide oversight, planning and communication of information to the College community.The Wave monthly college newsletter and The Sounds student newspaper may also offer information about college planning and evaluation activities. The Fact Book is also available to the college community and updated annually.
The general public and surrounding community is only generally aware of the College – its mission, goals and opportunities for the communities.Surveys show that the public views the College favorable, but there are opportunities for further education as to its mission and values.Soundings is published and sent to Foundation board members, retired faculty and staff, foundation donors in the last five years and in-kind donors in the last five years, “friends” of the foundation in last five years (at a particular donor level), legislators, lifetime and endowed scholarship donors, the governor, CTC presidents and communication directors, state board staff, current and former trustees, local diversity leasers, local officials, politicians, schools and school counselors, chamber leaders, K-12 superintendents in district, higher education leaders, advisory committee members, sister college presidents, state agency heads, college staff and faculty. The 2008 mailing was 3, 250 recipients.The Spring 2009 edition contained a ten-year longitudinal report.The current edition of Soundings is also electronically available on the college website along with links to President’s messages, College Council minutes, and the budget calendar.
Strengths · The College has or is developing procedures to evaluate achievement of institutional goals at the program/service level.
The college-wide ability rubrics, the department/program assessment plans, the program review are all examples of current tools. These pieces are clearly visible and do provide information about the College's achievement of its goal.
· The President’s Staff is priority driven.
In place are strong administrative teams at the President’s Staff and Division Dean level who make decisions based on the College priorities (does this feel like a strength already noted in I.A?)
· Institutional research is used to evaluate and to inform planning.
The Office of Institutional research gathers and provides data to give direction to planning and resource allocation.
· Increased involvement of College staff in planning.
Committees and councils dedicated to planning and recommending action at the college level are representative of a variety of departments and programs. Processes and recommendations made by such committees are shared campus-wide.
Challenges
· We do not have a visible comprehensive plan to evaluate the College's achievement of Mission and Goals.
The mission seems to broad to evaluate and the number of objectives and strategies too many to consistently evaluate.
· Progress reports of core and strategic indicators that go to the Board are not shared with the community.
Top-tier administrators are well informed but staff, faculty and community members are not given these reports.
· Communication internally and externally is not systematic or always effective.
In addition to Board and President’s Staff reports not always readily available, communication with the community is funneled through College Relations and intentionally not done by staff and faculty in other areas of the College.
Future Direction/Recommendations
· Revise the College Mission, Goals, & Strategies
· Develop a comprehensive plan to evaluate and communicate the College’s achievement of goals to both internal and external communities.
Improve external communications to the community. Version 2, Draft 2 Standard One - Institution Mission and Goals, Planning and Effectiveness
Introduction 1.A.1 The institution’s mission and goals derive from, or are widely understood by, the campus community, are adopted by the governing board, and are periodically reexamined. The mission, goals and values are well understood by the members of the President’s Staff. And the mission and values are widely understood by the college community in part because they were involved it the forming of the values statements.
2007-2010 Mission and Strategic Plan Development Timeline
Date
Action
April 2007
College hosted forums that gathered staff and faculty input in to the process of identifying the college’s values.values grid in April 2007
May 9 & 10, 2007
Two day retreat held at Hawks Prairie that included forty representatives from all service and programs areas including students, faculty, staff and the Board of Trustees.
May-June, 2007
Smaller group met to develop a focused, prioritized plan to direct the future work of the college.
June 2007
Draft of plan was published for review by the college community. Review continued over the summer of 2007.
Fall 2007
Draft presented to the college community.
December 13, 2007
Final draftof the college’s mission, values, and goals was presented to the Board of Trustees for first reading and adoption
December 2007- June 2008
Strategy teams were formed to identify initiatives, attach new or existing measures to objectives, and establish baselines to ensure accountability and efficiency. Work included: Defining the mission, considering and prioritizing multiple objectives, listing of shared values that informed the priority of the objectives, creating consensus in current Strategic Plan
Spring 2008
Final strategic plan, was presented to the community in the Spring 2008 Soundings
2009-2010
Strategic plan will be reexamined according to the College’s three-year review cycle.
However, the goals and objectives are less well understood by many in the wider College community with some exceptions:
staff and faculty who request professional development funds, equipment or staff positions or staff and faculty who serve on decision-making committees such as the Equipment Budget Committee and College Council. These members of the college community build their rationale or make their decisions based upon the strategic plan. (We may need some concrete data from the surveys to make this statement)
1.A.2 The mission, as adopted by the governing board, appears in appropriate institutional publications, including the catalog. The mission, goals and objectives are published in the college catalog (09-10 College Catalog , p2), and on the College website, the mission and values are published on the “Welcome to South Puget Sound” page and the entire Strategic Plan is published on the Administration page.
1.A.3 Progress in accomplishing the institution’s mission and goals is documented and made public. Progress toward accomplishing the College’s mission and goals is documented through reports to the Board of Trustees (as stated in the Spring 2009 Soundings) and made public piecemeal to the campus community through all staff meetings, to the campus community and the community-at-large in the fall annual “State of the College” report, online on the About page, and through Soundings that is online and also distributed in hard copy to those who donate to the college and.(1) Other specific reports—such as the report on the College’s recycling and composting efforts—are distributed through campus e-mails and reports in the campus newsletter The Wave.
1.A.4 Goals are determined consistent with the institution’s mission and its resources - human, physical, and financial. Goals are consistent with the college's mission and its human, physical, and financial resources. College's goals -- student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability -- are consistent with its mission of "engaging our community in learning . . . for life" focusing on college values: 1.pursues excellence 2.operates in an atmosphere of accountability and respect 3.accepts responsibilities to the communities we serve 4.fosters inclusiveness at our campuses 5.provides student-centered education
The College's goals--to support student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability--are consistent with its resources. ·Human Resources: oHiring (see Hiring Process and Screening Committee Handbook) and staffing oRequests professional development oFulltime faculty prioritization process and scoring rubrics tied to and consistent with objectives, strategic plan and Strategic Enrollment Management plan (see Resource Room). ·Physical Resources: oGrounds, buildings, building utilization and levels of maintenance (see Master Plan). oPriority scheduling policy of classes first while other requests delayed until after 10th class day. ·Financial Resources: and resource allocation processes: oBudget development oEquipment prioritization process is tied to and consistent with goals and tied to mission/goals/strategies, and the results of criteria-based scores are recorded. oBudget reduction process through the College Council was transparent and consistent with college goals. (see College Council Minutes 12/08 and 1/09) .
Overall the strategies outlined in Strategic Plan connect the mission/goals to the resources and the processes of resource allocation.
1.A.5 The institution’s mission and goals give direction to all its educational activities, to its admission policies, selection of faculty, allocation of resources, and to planning. The interviews with President Pumphrey and all of the VP's made clear that the mission and goals (objectives/strategies) are giving direction to the senior administration. All spoke of the annual strategic priorities as drivers of their work and regular meetings as feedback sessions, and they spoke of tying the work of their service or program areas to these priorities.
· VP for Instruction uses the mission and goals to drive the work of the academic deans and directors and the various committees and councils that she chairs;
· The VP for Students uses the Strategic Plan to guide the work of Student Services and the annual strategic priorities to allocate resources;
· The VP for Administration uses it to manage the financial resources of the College and to direct the work of the administrative services.
There is ample evidence that the annual strategic priorities for 2008-2009 (below) provided direction for decision-making committees and councils.
Annual Strategic Priority 2008-2009
2008-2009 Responsible Group
Assessment/Results/Action
Respond to the increasing demand for online and hybrid offerings
Instruction Department
Increased online/hybrid offering from _ toa _ % increase. Hired E-Learning manager to support faculty and manage offerings
Implement systematic academic assessment that evaluates student learning outcomes in major program areas and in general education
College-wide abilities rubric developed, piloted, and incorporated in 2007-2009 assessment projects. (add link to library’s accreditation web page when available)
Develop and implement a strategic enrollment management plan (SEM)
Student Services,Instruction
Created and implemented strategic enrollment management plan that has resulted in
Address community and business environmental changes through dynamic planning
Advisory Committees, Workforce Development, Center for Continuous Learning, President’s staff, Deans
Gather input from advisory committees on what programs best fit the changing market place.Created two new certificate programs based on input, _.Created short term, intensive worker retraining programs in order to respond to immediate needs.Repackaged business and industry training in shorter offerings to match training department budget restraints.
Systematically assess and improve processes and procedures
All
Revised equipment allocation process using electronic resources.
Develop and implement a marketing plan
College Relations
Design and implement a staffing model that supports efficient and accessible operations.
Implement a systematic instructional program review process that integrates academic assessment and planning and influences resource allocation.
ARC
Created a Program/Service review document in Spring 2009, piloted in Summer 2009, revised and annual schedule for review created for three year cycles.
What is less certain is the extent to which knowledge of these priorities filters down the hierarchy. (Here we need to provide information that suggests the lack of “widely understood” knowledge)
1.A.6 Public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. The College’s public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. Classified staff, faculty and administrators are involved in a wide range of charitable and community and service organizations including: Rotary club memberships, Thurston Chamber of Commerce member, OLT Visitor & Convention Bureau member, United Way, and many others.The college also provides service to the community by providing co-sponsored activities and services. ·Activities: Expanding your Horizons, Latino Youth Summit, parenting lecture series, art gallery space, Thurston County Food Bank Drive Host, Olympia World Affairs Council Banquet Host, Combined Fund Drive, and Annual Christmas Drive for Toys for needy children. ·Services: Small Business Council, Dental Clinic, Olympia Chamber Orchestra co-sponsor member
1.A.7 The institution reviews with the Commission, contemplated changes that would alter its mission, autonomy, ownership or locus of control, or its intention to offer a degree at a higher level than is included in its present accreditation, or other changes in accordance with Policy A-2 //Substantive Change//.
During the 2008-2009 academic year the College as represented by Vice President for Instruction sought approval from the Commission on two occasions: to offer an Associate in Arts degree entirely online and to rename the professional/technical degrees Associate of Applied Science (AAS or AAS-T).(Jill is scanning doc to link here10/10/09)
ANALYSIS
Strengths: · Informed sense of direction.
Upper management shares a clear vision of the Mission and Goals of the college. They work together well as a team and use this vision to direct the work of those in their different areas of the College.
· Data is used to drive decisions.
The Office of Institutional Research collects and provides data that is examined by decision-makers and used to give direction to activities and to allocate resources.
· Staff, faculty and administrators understand and are committed to the mission of community colleges and this College.
A large and diverse group participated in revising the Strategic plan and in shaping the Mission and Values.
Weaknesses: · Goals, Objectives and Strategies are not well understood by staff and faculty.
Staff, faculty and community members were involved in creating the revised Mission and Values but were less involved in developing the Goals, Objectives and Strategies and the process for developing these was less transparent. How the Values inform the Goals, Objectives and Strategies is not clear. The administration has a solid understanding of how these drive decisions and communicates this connection; however, the language of Goals, Objectives and Strategies isn’t widely recognized when communicated to the campus and community at large. A general vision of the Goals and Values is not adequate to unify the College in its efforts.
· Strategic Priorities are not well understood by staff and faculty.
The College community lacks information about the specific Strategic Priorities that are set each year by President’s Staff and therefore do not recognize reports of progress when they are communicated. Staff and faculty involved in planning and implementing at the program/service level may not always understand, as directors and deans do, how their work is tied to these annual Priorities.
· Mission and Goals are not visible on campus.
Many of the hard copies posted on campus are out-of-date and current copies are not readily available to the College Community at large. Though posted on the Administration page on the campus website, this link is buried in layers of links.
Recommendations: · Explicitly and regularly communicate Goals, Objectives and Strategies and progress on each in order to help them become more recognizable to stakeholders.
· Communicate the Annual Strategic Priorities and the progress toward them to the campus community.
· Increase the visibility of the Strategic Plan on and off campus.
1.B - Planning and Effectiveness The institution engages in ongoing planning to achieve its mission and goals. It also evaluates how well, and in what ways, it is accomplishing its mission and goals and uses the results for broad based, continuous planning and evaluation. Through its planning process, the institution asks questions, seeks answers, analyzes itself, and revises its goals, policies, procedures, and resource allocation.
1.B.1 The institution defines its evaluation and planning processes clearly.It develops and implements procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals. This is true of the evaluations of personnel at the college (student, peer, supervisory). However, the process of evaluating programs and services is under way, and there is current conversation about the evaluation of our College processes.
(here we will use a table with list of evaluation and planning processes, who does it and schedule~ it will include· Online classes –both the technology and the instruction—are in the queue for a more clearly defined process. ELearning evaluation will be built into all of the online classes.)
The College defines its planning processes clearly. This was true of the previous strategic plan and is under development for the next plan. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan. · It planned its budget reduction, capital improvements, the large equipment prioritization and the fulltime faculty prioritization process clearly. This is also true for the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. The planning process for the business office ??? is it clearly defined?
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help indicate the extent to which the College is meeting its goals.
The President’s Staff developed Annual Strategic Priorities to focus the College’s efforts on eight of its identified strategies and increase its accountability. These eight priorities are assigned to the vice presidents for implementation, and the progress toward achievement is reported regularly in staff meetings. Here we should refer to the annual strategic priorities, identify how they were chosen, and how the progress was reported in the staff meetings.
(In progress ~Mary Soltman is working on refining this)
1.B.2 The institution engages in systematic planning for, and evaluation of, its activities, including teaching, research, and public service consistent with institutional mission and goals.
The College uses the mission (as it is) and goals intentionally in its planning and evaluation of activities. It engages on a fairly regular basis, though this is most true of the Annual Strategic Priorities. The systematic planning and evaluation is evident in most areas of the College in response to problems. The program review is an effort to systematize and make inclusive this process.
The College, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service Review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process will be conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a 3 year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the strategic plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community.
Teaching: Class scheduling is planned and evaluated systematically based upon its mission and goals.
Evaluation of the faculty—adjunct & fulltime—using multiple indices.
Strategic Enrollment Management Plan regularly reviews student enrollment patterns within the context of the service area’s diverse communities.
CCSE survey of student engagements fits here.
Graduate & Employer Surveys
Instructional Council and ARC systematically plan and evaluate activities.
Capital Facilities Master Plan reviews facility requests and design on the goals of student centeredness and effective, efficient, and fiscally accountable operations.
IT Strategic Plan is consistent with the mission and goals, but not yet evaluated.
Nascent Program Review is systematic and used for planning and evaluation of all area of the College.
Research: While not a priority of the College, the small research projects in anthropology and psychology were approved as consistent with the mission and goals (link).
Public Service: Some activities are evaluated based upon goals and mission, but the system or overview of public service may not be systematically planned for or evaluated. (We need to know more about what we do or choose not to do for public service).
Operations: · Strategic planning accompanies operational and budget planning at the executive, mid-management and unit level where the levels mutually inform and support one another. ·To better align planning and budgeting, the college’s two year planning cycle parallels the legislative biennial budgeting cycle. ·Institutional priorities provide direction to operational planning. Figure xx illustrates the planning process and input from various constituents. (How/why did we get to the current planning process?) (example of Operational/Budget development process and/or plans?) ·Evidence that demonstrates the planning, analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes such as oCollege mission oCollege goals ·Analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes/planning ostudies of alumni and former students ostudies regarding effectiveness of programs and their graduates ostudies that indicate degree of success in placing graduates opre- and post-test comparisons of student knowledge, skills, and abilities surveys of satisfaction - students, alumni, and employees
1.B.3 The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties. The governance system at SPSCC supports the college’s mission, values, strategic directions and learning outcomes. The stakeholders (Board of Trustees, students, classified staff, faculty and the exempt /administrative staff members) have a role to play in the college’s governance system. (Governance Model link) “The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.” (Coats)The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituent group.
More members of the staff are involved in the College’s decision-making processes. In 2008, for the first time, State mandated budgetary reductions were discussed at length by the President of the College, members of the Administration and the College Council.As a result, the college community was asked to present their ideas for cost savings. These ideas were sorted by the Administration, reviewed and prioritized by the Council, and implemented as prioritized. An annual small equipment budgeting process was established in 2007 whereby administrators, classified staff and faculty meet together to evaluate and prioritize campus-wide requests for small equipment from a central pool 2008-2009 Equipment Allocation Process. Another example of this improvement is that of the faculty hiring prioritization committee. Members included the Instructional Vice President, Division Deans and faculty. Rationales for filing positions were presented through proposal packets and a vote of the membership determined which positions were filled. The College’s values of operating in an atmosphere of accountability and respect, accepting responsibilities to the communities we serve, and fostering inclusiveness, drive the participatory nature of its planning. This is evident in the planning process for the Campus Center , the Enrollment Management Team, the Assessment & Research Councils, the development of the Program Review process, regularly conducted open forums, and strategic planning which includes board members, students and community representatives.
Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committee, operational work groups, contract and ad hoc committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory (Governance Model here, link).
1.B.4
The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
In 2005 there was a shift from a formula-driven budgeting process to a process driven by institutional prioritization (McKinney).The College has been using the results of evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
·This is evident in the 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard Two that outlines how the institution has used the results of _ and _ to increase online offerings and support and to establish the rationale for large equipment purchases and fulltime faculty hiring prioritization. ·The single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies. ·Student Services uses the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop its action plans and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid. The 2008 CCSSE indicated that those services had improved and inspired Student Services to continue that level of service. ·College-wide program/service review will inform prioritization of hiring and equipment ·(We need to include here the evaluation of college/classroom climate incidences and progress toward respect for diversity ) ·Prior 2009-2010 these efforts had been systematic in that they are planned and scheduled, but are not College- wide. To achieve the system-wide use of the evaluation data and planning activities, the College has instituted and implemented a Program and Service Review process that will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus, and the results will be used to influence allocation and improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified. Then a schedule based on a three-year review cycle was developed. This process systematizes and complements the existing evaluation and processes identified above.
(Note: LS is still working on this)
1. B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement. The Annual Strategic Priorities/Initiatives which are based on the Strategic Plan use data from the community survey, the CCSSE report, the Fact Book results, the Diversity Plan, (future) Program Review documents, This process is done each _ by a group consisting of .These priorities are then distributed by _ to.Strengths: · The College has or is developing procedures to evaluate achievement of institutional goals at the program/service level.
The college-wide ability rubrics, the department/program assessment plans, the program review are all examples of current tools. These pieces are clearly visible and do provide information about the College's achievement of its goal.
· The President’s Staff is priority driven.
In place are strong administrative teams at the President’s Staff and Division Dean level who make decisions based on the College priorities(does this feel like a strength already noted in I.A?)
· Institutional research is used to evaluate and to inform planning.
The Office of Institutional research gathers and provides data to give direction to planning and resource allocation.
· Increased involvement of College staff in planning.
Committees and councils dedicated to planning and recommending action at the college level are representative of a variety of departments and programs. Processes and recommendations made by such committees are shared campus-wide.
Weaknesses: · We do not have a visible comprehensive plan to evaluate the College's achievement of Mission and Goals.
The mission seems to broad to evaluate and the number of objectives and strategies too many to consistently evaluate.
· Progress reports of core and strategic indicators that go to the Board are not shared with the community.
Top-tier administrators are well informed but staff, faculty and community members are not given these reports.
· Communication internally and externally is not systematic or always effective.
In addition to Board and President’s Staff reports not always readily available, communication with the community is funneled through College Relations and intentionally not done by staff and faculty in other areas of the College.
Recommendations: · Revise the College Mission, Goals, & Strategies
· Develop a comprehensive plan to evaluate and communicate the College’s achievement of goals to both internal and external communities.
Improve external communications to the community.
ANALYSIS
Strengths: · Informed sense of direction.
Upper management shares a clear vision of the Mission and Goals of the college. They work together well as a team and use this vision to direct the work of those in their different areas of the College.
· Data is used to drive decisions.
The Office of Institutional Research collects and provides data that is examined by decision-makers and used to give direction to activities and to allocate resources.
· Staff, faculty and administrators understand and are committed to the mission of community colleges and this College.
A large and diverse group participated in revising the Strategic plan and in shaping the Mission and Values.
Weaknesses: · Goals, Objectives and Strategies are not well understood by staff and faculty.
Staff, faculty and community members were involved in creating the revised Mission and Values but were less involved in developing the Goals, Objectives and Strategies and the process for developing these was less transparent. How the Values inform the Goals, Objectives and Strategies is not clear. The administration has a solid understanding of how these drive decisions and communicates this connection; however, the language of Goals, Objectives and Strategies isn’t widely recognized when communicated to the campus and community at large. A general vision of the Goals and Values is not adequate to unify the College in its efforts.
· Strategic Priorities are not well understood by staff and faculty.
The College community lacks information about the specific Strategic Priorities that are set each year by President’s Staff and therefore do not recognize reports of progress when they are communicated. Staff and faculty involved in planning and implementing at the program/service level may not always understand, as directors and deans do, how their work is tied to these annual Priorities.
· Mission and Goals are not visible on campus.
Many of the hard copies posted on campus are out-of-date and current copies are not readily available to the College Community at large. Though posted on the Administration page on the campus website, this link is buried in layers of links.
Recommendations: · Explicitly and regularly communicate Goals, Objectives and Strategies and progress on each in order to help them become more recognizable to stakeholders.
· Communicate the Annual Strategic Priorities and the progress toward them to the campus community.
· Increase the visibility of the Strategic Plan on and off campus.
1.B - Planning and Effectiveness The institution engages in ongoing planning to achieve its mission and goals. It also evaluates how well, and in what ways, it is accomplishing its mission and goals and uses the results for broad-based, continuous planning and evaluation. Through its planning process, the institution asks questions, seeks answers, analyzes itself, and revises its goals, policies, procedures, and resource allocation.
1.B.1 The institution defines its evaluation and planning processes clearly. This is true of the evaluations of personnel at the college. (student, peer, evaluations).
However, the process of evaluating programs and services is under way, and there is current conversation about the evaluation of our College processes.
· Online classes –both the technology and the instruction—are in the queue for a more clearly defined process. ELearning evaluation will be built into all of the online classes .
The College defines its planning processes clearly.
· This was true of the previous strategic plan and is under development for the next plan. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan.
· It planned it budget reduction, capital improvements, the large equipment prioritization and the fulltime faculty prioritization process clearly. This is also true for the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. The planning process for the business office ??? is it clearly defined?
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help indicate the extent to which the College is meeting its goals.
The President’s Staff developed Annual Strategic Priorities to focus the College’s efforts on eight of its identified strategies and increase its accountability. These eight priorities are assigned to the vice presidents for implementation, and the progress toward achievement is reported regularly in staff meetings. Here we should refer to the annual strategic priorities, identify how they were chosen, and how the progress was reported in the staff meetings.
1.B.2 1The College uses the Mission and Goals intentionally in its planning and evaluation of activities. It engages on a fairly regular basis, though this is most true of the Annual Strategic Priorities. The systematic planning and evaluation is evident in most areas of the College in response to problems (example?)The College, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service Review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a three-year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the Strategic Plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community.
Evaluation of the faculty -- adjunct, full-time probationary and tenured -- uses multiple indices and is systematic.Insert adjunct process here.Probationary faculty participate in a rigorous and regimented probationary review process and tenured faculty are required to participate in a five-year review process including evaluation from students, colleagues and other self-evaluation activities.Class scheduling is planned and evaluated (proof?) systematically and the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan regularly reviews student enrollment patterns within the context of the service area’s diverse communities.In addition, the CCSE was facilitated and the results shared with the campus community and used for planning.Graduate & Employer Surveys are regularly conducted to assess the degree to which graduates are meeting the needs of employers.College committees such as Instructional Council and Assessment Research Council systematically plan and evaluate activities.Capital Facilities Master Plan reviews facility requests and design on the goals of student centeredness and effective, efficient, and fiscally accountable operations.IT Strategic Plan is consistent with the mission and goals, but not yet evaluated.
Research is not a priority of the College, but the small research projects in anthropology and psychology were approved as consistent with the mission and goals. Some public service activities are evaluated based upon goals and mission, but the system or overview of public service may not be systematically planned for or evaluated.Many of the community service activities sponsored by the College seem to be initiated by programs, departments, faculty or staff rather than driven by administrative priorities.
1.B.3 The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties.
The College’s values of operating in an atmosphere of accountability and respect, accepting responsibilities to the communities we serve, and fostering inclusiveness drive the participatory nature of its planning. The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. “The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information” (Coats). Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituents.
This is not the only example of the participatory nature of the college planning process as more and more members of the staff are involved in the College’s decision-making processes. In 2008, for the first time, State mandated budgetary reductions were discussed at length by the President of the College, members of the Administration and the College Council . As a result, the college community was asked to present their ideas for cost savings. These ideas were sorted by the Administration, reviewed and prioritized by the Council, and implemented as prioritized. An annual small equipment budgeting process was established in 2007 whereby administrators, classified staff and faculty meet together to evaluate and prioritize campus-wide requests for small equipment from a central pool. Another example of this improvement is that of the faculty hiring prioritization committee. Members included the Instructional Vice President, Division Deans and faculty. Rationales for filing positions were presented through proposal packets and a vote of the membership determined which positions were filled. (link here)This is also evident in the planning process for the Campus Center, the Enrollment Management Team, the Assessment & Research Councils, the development of the Program Review process, regularly conducted open forums, and strategic planning which includes board members, students and community representatives.
Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory:
1.B.4
The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
Historical info- shift 4 years ago from a formula-driven budgeting process to a process driven by institutional prioritization.
The College has been using the results of evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
· This is evident in the 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard Two that outlines how the institution has used the results of _ and _ to increase online offerings and support and to establish the rationale for large equipment purchases and fulltime faculty hiring prioritization. · The single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies.
· Student Services uses the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop its action plans and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid. The 2008 CCSSE indicated that those services had improved and inspired Student Services to continue that level of service.
· College-wide program/service review will inform prioritization of hiring and equipment
· What about the evaluation of college/classroom climate incidences and progress toward respect for diversity
Prior 2009-2010 these efforts had been systematic in that they are planned and scheduled, but are not College wide. To achieve the system-wide use of the evaluation data and planning activities, the College has instituted and implemented a Program and Service Review Summer 2009, evaluated and modified. Then a schedule based on a three-year review cycle was developed. This process systematizes and complements the existing evaluation and processes identified above.
1. B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement.
The Annual Strategic Priorities/Initiatives which are based on the Strategic Plan use data from the community survey, the CCSSE report, the Fact Book results, the Diversity Plan, (future) Program Review documents, This process is done each _ by a group consisting of . These priorities are then distributed by _ to.
In 2008 the college brought in George Copa to lead a cross campus committee through the an evaluation and planning process for an integrated Student Services, E-Learning, and Library building. This process used a technique that built a shared vision for the building upon the shared values of the staff, community and students. This process will be used to help the institution create ownership of the results and give a more comprehensive plan for others to implement.
1.B.6 The institution provides the necessary resources for effective evaluation and planning processes.
The College has been very fiscally supportive of all institutional research efforts. Since Feb. 2007 the College’s funding for Institutional Research has supported one fulltime position and supplies, travel, etc. However, those resources were not adequate to support the research necessary for overall institutional evaluation. To provide more information for evaluation and planning, the College has allocated additional funds to purchase survey instruments, materials and software (CCSSE, Graduate Survey, etc.). In addition, the College has provided funds for the professional development of the institutional researcher and hired support staff. (add references to information packets Darby provides to programs and departments)
The college engages the community in college wide strategic planning, developing a Strategic Plan and subsequent goals and objectives. The Strategic Plan seeds divisional level planning and college plans to address budget, facilities, equipment, enrollment, technology, curriculum, and research. (add reference to plan documents such as Facilities Master Plan, Equipment process, curriculum and the like.) The College Council, President’s Staff, and Board of Trustees assess the planning process and plans ensuring consistency with the college mission and goals. (reference to College Council minutes?) Annual program/department service/program reviews provide opportunity for in-depth evaluation every few years and support for accreditation cycle reviews. Each department/program reviews its coincidence with college goals, demands, support services, budget, and outcomes. (see program/service review templates). Changes are made each year to help ensure continuous improvement.
The accreditation self-study process provides opportunities to assess program/department effectiveness of the evaluation, planning, budgeting processes connected to the college Strategic Plan. The self-study focuses on an in-depth appraisal of all department/programs. Recommendations from previous accreditation studies are incorporated into the college planning process modifying or supporting institution-level goals and objectives. (Julian Pietras is still working on this section)
1.B.7 The institution’s research is integrated with and supportive of institutional evaluation and planning.
Institutional research is entirely integrated with evaluation and planning. IR’s purpose is to look for the answers to the questions “how are we doing” and “how could we be doing things better.”
IR is the primary data source for information about the ongoing operation of the college, and that data has been used in multiple ways for evaluation and planning. The following chart offers examples.
Group or Project Name
Type of data
Purpose
Accreditation Support
surveys
· Support self-study
Assessment Guideline for ARC
Assessment data
· Assist development of a common framework for assessment
Core Indicator Summary & Fact Book
Institutional indicators
· Identify trends . . . patterns ??? demographics?
· Determine “health” of the College
· Inform the Board of Trustees, College community and the report to the public
Department or Service Areas Surveys (i.e. IT, Student Senate, Sustainability Committee)
Original research: quantitative & qualitative data
· Plan and evaluation
· Customer satisfaction
Master Planning
Enrollment data
· Plan size of Hawks/Marvin Road campus
· Plan parking on Mottman campus
Program Review
List general categories
· Provide common data to all programs and service areas
Strategic Enrollment Management Plan—Core Oversight Group
· Develop strategic plan
· Track progress on annual strategic priorities
(note: we had a nice grid above here, but have lost it somehow~ Mary designed it & willl get it back)
1.B.8 The institution systematically reviews its institutional research efforts, IR evaluation processes, and its planning activities to document their effectiveness.
The data and reports from Institutional Research are reviewed regularly as a result of presentations to the College’s many stakeholders: Master Planning Group, Strategic Enrollment Management Core Oversight Group, Board of Trustees, Presidents Staff, Assessment and Research Council, Instructional Programs. Furthermore, the personnel in the office undergo regular exempt and classified staff evaluations using the standard forms.
The College-wide Program/Service Area Review documents the effectiveness of IR’s research, evaluation and planning.
1.B.9The institution uses information from its planning and evaluation processes to communicate evidence of institutional effectiveness to its public. The College community receives evidence of institutional effectiveness in an annual State of the College address and through e-mailed communiqués and all-staff meetings. These communications include information from the College’s planning and evaluation processes and discuss results of any surveys and studies conducted.However, as discussed earlier, the information may not be recognized as evidence of institutional progress.College Council’s new formation provides college-wide oversight, planning and communication of information to the College community.The Wave monthly college newsletter and The Sounds student newspaper may also offer information about college planning and evaluation activities. The Fact Book is also available to the college community and updated annually.
The general public and surrounding community is only generally aware of the College – its mission, goals and opportunities for the communities.Surveys show that the public views the College favorable, but there are opportunities for further education as to its mission and values.Soundings is published and sent to Foundation board members, retired faculty and staff, foundation donors in the last five years and in-kind donors in the last five years, “friends” of the foundation in last five years (at a particular donor level), legislators, lifetime and endowed scholarship donors, the governor, CTC presidents and communication directors, state board staff, current and former trustees, local diversity leasers, local officials, politicians, schools and school counselors, chamber leaders, K-12 superintendents in district, higher education leaders, advisory committee members, sister college presidents, state agency heads, college staff and faculty. The 2008 mailing was 3, 250 recipients.The Spring 2009 edition contained a ten-year longitudinal report.The current edition of Soundings is also electronically available on the college website along with links to President’s messages, College Council minutes, and the budget calendar.
Analysis
Strengths: The College has or is developing procedures to evaluate achievement of institutional goals at the program/service level. The college-wide ability rubrics, thedepartment/program assessment plans, the program review are all examples of current tools. These pieces are clearly visible and do provide information about the College's achievement of its goal.
The President’s Staff is priority driven.
In place are strong administrative teams at the level of President’s Staff and Division Deans who make decisions based on the College priorities. (future discussion -does this feel like a strength already noted in I.A?)
Institutional research is used to evaluate and to inform planning.
The Office of Institutional research gathers and provides data to give direction to planning and resource allocation.
Increased involvement of College staff in planning.
Committees and councils dedicated to planning and recommending action at the college level are representative of a variety of departments and programs. Processes and recommendations made by such committees are shared campus-wide.
Weaknesses: We do not have a visible comprehensive plan to evaluate the College's achievement of Mission and Goals.
The mission seems to broad to evaluate and the number of objectives and strategies too many to consistently evaluate.
Progress reports of core and strategic indicators that go to the Board are not shared with the community.
Top-tier administrators are well informed but staff, faculty and community members are not given these reports.
Communication internally and externally is not systematic or always effective.
In addition to Board and President’s Staff reports not always readily available, communication with the community is funneled through College Relations and intentionally not done by staff and faculty in other areas of the College.
Recommendations: Revise the College Mission, Goals, & Strategies
Develop a comprehensive plan to evaluate and communicate the College’s achievement of goals to both internal and external communities.
Improve external communications to the community.
Version 1, Draft 2 Institution Mission and Goals, Planning and Effectiveness
Introduction
1.A.1 The 2007-2010 Mission and Strategic Plan emerged from a strategic planning process that included forty representatives from all service and program areas on both Mottman and Hawks Prairie campuses, including students, faculty, staff and the Board of Trustees . It was launched in a two-day retreat held at Hawks Prairie on May 9 and 10, 2007. A smaller group met during the next two months to develop a focused, prioritized plan to direct the future work of the College. In June a fairly complete draft was published for review by the college community. It was revised over the summer and presented again in Fall 2007 to the college community. On Dec. 13 the final draft was presented to the Board for its first reading and adoption.
Then beginning mid-Dec. strategy teams were formed to identify initiatives, attach new or existing measures to objectives, and establish baselines in ensure accountability and efficiency. During this process the team ·Defined the mission ·Considered and prioritized multiple objectives ·Generated the list of shared values that informed the priority of the objectives ·Found consensus evident in the current SP
In another process during strategic planning, the College hosted forums so that the staff and faculty could provide input into the process of identifying the College’s values. This input from the college community was charted in a values grid in April 2007 and then distilled into the value statements found in the current strategic plan.
There were representatives from the community and local institutions present at some stages of the strategic planning process, and the Plan was presented to the community in the Spring 2008 issue of Soundings: The Magazine of South Puget Sound Community Colleg/(5). The current plan will be reexamined during the 2009-2010 academic year according to the College’s three-year review cycle.
The mission, goals and values are well understood by the members of the President’s Staff. (See 1.A.1) And the mission and values are widely understood by the college community in part because they were involved it the forming of the values statements. However, the goals and objectives are less well understood by many in the wider College community with some exceptions: ostaff and faculty who request professional development funds, equipment or staff positions or ostaff and faculty who serve on decision-making committees such as the Equipment Budget Committee and College Council.
These members of the college community build their rationale or make their decisions based upon the strategic plan.
1.A.2 The mission, goals and objectives are published in the college catalog (09-10 College Catalog , p2), and on the College website, the mission and values are published on the “Welcome to South Puget Sound” page and the entire Strategic Plan is published on the Administration page.
1.A.3 Progress toward accomplishing the College’s mission and goals is documented through reports to the Board of Trustees (as stated in the Spring 2009 Soundings) and made public piecemeal to the campus community through all staff meetings, to the campus community and the community-at-large in the fall annual “State of the College” report, online on the About page, and through Soundings that is online and also distributed in hard copy to those who donate to the college and.(1) Other specific reports—such as the report on the College’s recycling and composting efforts—are distributed through campus e-mails and reports in the campus newsletter The Wave.
1.A.4 Goals are consistent with the college's mission and its human, physical, and financial resources. College's goals -- student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability -- are consistent with its mission of "engaging our community in learning . . . for life" focusing on college values:
pursues excellence
operates in an atmosphere of accountability and respect
accepts responsibilities to the communities we serve
fosters inclusiveness at our campuses
provides student-centered education
The College's goals--to support student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability--are consistent with its resources.
Fulltime faculty prioritization process and scoring rubrics tied to and consistent with objectives, strategic plan and Strategic Enrollment Management plan (see Resource Room).
Physical Resources:
Grounds, buildings, building utilization and levels of maintenance (see Master Plan).
Priority scheduling policy of classes first while other requests delayed until after 10th class day .
Financial Resources: and resource allocation processes:
Budget development
Equipment prioritization process is tied to and consistent with goals and tied to mission/goals/strategies, and the results of criteria-based scores are recorded.
Budget reduction process through the College Council was transparent and consistent with college goals. (see College Council Minutes 12/08 and 1/09).
Overall the strategies outlined in Strategic Plan connect the mission/goals to the resources and the processes of resource allocation.
1.A.5 The interviews with President Pumphrey and all of the VP's made clear that the mission and goals (objectives/strategies) are giving direction to the senior administration. All spoke of the annual strategic priorities as drivers of their work and regular meetings as feedback sessions, and they spoke of tying the work of their service or program areas to these priorities. ·VP for Instruction uses the mission and goals to drive the work of the academic deans and directors and the various committees and councils that she chairs; ·The VP for Students uses the Strategic Plan to guide the work of Student Services and the annual strategic priorities to allocate resources; ·The VP for Administration uses it to manage the financial resources of the College and to direct the work of the administrative services.
There is ample evidence that the annual strategic priorities for 2008-2009 (below) provided direction for decision-making committees and councils:
Annual Strategic Priority 2008-2009
2008-2009 Decision-making Body/Action
Respond to the increasing demand for online and hybrid offerings
Instruction Office increased online/hybrid offerings from _ to .
Implement systematic academic assessment that evaluates student learning outcomes in major program areas and in general education (add link to library’s accreditation web page when available)
Instruction’s work on college-wide abilities: rubric development, pilots, 2007-2009 assessment projects.
Develop and implement a strategic enrollment management plan)
Student Services’ Strategic Enrollment Management Plan: joint committee from Instruction & Student Service
Address community and business environmental changes through dynamic planning
Systematically assess and improve processes and procedures
Develop and implement a marketing plan
College Relations
Design and implement a staffing model that supports efficient and accessible operations.
Implement a systematic instructional program review process that integrates academic assessment and planning and influences resource allocation.
College-wide: Program/Service Area Review planned 2008-2009, implemented 2009-2010
What is less certain is the extent to which knowledge of these priorities filters down the hierarchy. Here we need to provide information that suggests the lack of “widely understood” knowledge.
1.A.6 The College’s public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. ·Participation in community organizations and events: College classified staff, faculty and administrators are involved in a wide range of charitable and service organizations,. (Rotary club memberships, Thurston Chamber of Commerce member, OLT Visitor & Convention Bureau member, ·College-sponsored or college-partnered activities: Expanding your Horizons, Latino Youth Summit, parenting lecture series ·College services to the community: Small Business Council, Dental Clinic, Fresh Measures, Oly chamber Orchestra co-sponsor member, ?? ·Charitable contributions: Combined Fund Drive, Annual Christmas Drive for Toys for needy children. ·Art Gallery Space
Thurston County Food bank Food Drive host; Olympia World Affairs Council spring banquet host;
1.A.7 During the 2008-2009 academic year the College as represented by Vice President for Instruction sought approval from the Commission on two occasions: to offer an Associate in Arts degree entirely online and to rename the professional/technical degrees Associate of Applied Science (AAS or AAS-T).Jill is scanning doc to link here10/10/09)
ANALYSIS
Strengths: · Informed sense of direction.
Upper management shares a clear vision of the Mission and Goals of the college. They work together well as a team and use this vision to direct the work of those in their different areas of the College. · Data is used to drive decisions.
The Office of Institutional Research collects and provides data that is examined by decision-makers and used to give direction to activities and to allocate resources. · Staff, faculty and administrators understand and are committed to the mission of community colleges and this College.
A large and diverse group participated in revising the Strategic plan and in shaping the Mission and Values.
Weaknesses: · Goals, Objectives and Strategies are not well understood by staff and faculty.
Staff, faculty and community members were involved in creating the revised Mission and Values but were less involved in developing the Goals, Objectives and Strategies and the process for developing these was less transparent. How the Values inform the Goals, Objectives and Strategies is not clear. The administration has a solid understanding of how these drive decisions and communicates this connection; however, the language of Goals, Objectives and Strategies isn’t widely recognized when communicated to the campus and community at large. A general vision of the Goals and Values is not adequate to unify the College in its efforts. · Strategic Priorities are not well understood by staff and faculty.
The College community lacks information about the specific Strategic Priorities that are set each year by President’s Staff and therefore do not recognize reports of progress when they are communicated. Staff and faculty involved in planning and implementing at the program/service level may not always understand, as directors and deans do, how their work is tied to these annual Priorities. · Mission and Goals are not visible on campus.
Many of the hard copies posted on campus are out-of-date and current copies are not readily available to the College Community at large. Though posted on the Administration page on the campus website, this link is buried in layers of links.
Recommendations : · Explicitly and regularly communicate Goals, Objectives and Strategies and progress on each in order to help them become more recognizable to stakeholders. · Communicate the Annual Strategic Priorities and the progress toward them to the campus community. · Increase the visibility of the Strategic Plan on and off campus.
1.B - Planning and Effectiveness The institution engages in ongoing planning to achieve its mission and goals. It also evaluates how well, and in what ways, it is accomplishing its mission and goals and uses the results for broadbased, continuous planning and evaluation. Through its planning process, the institution asks questions, seeks answers, analyzes itself, and revises its goals, policies, procedures, and resource allocation.
1.B.1The institution defines its evaluation and planning processes clearly. This is true of the evaluations of personnel at the college. (student, peer, evaluations).
However, the process of evaluating programs and services is under way, and there is current conversation about the evaluation of our College processes. ·Online classes –both the technology and the instruction—are in the queue for a more clearly defined process. ELearning evaluation will be built into all of the online classes .
The College defines its planning processes clearly. ·This was true of the previous strategic plan and is under development for the next plan. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan. ·It planned it budget reduction, capital improvements, the large equipment prioritization and the fulltime faculty prioritization process clearly. This is also true for the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. The planning process for the business office ??? is it clearly defined?
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help indicate the extent to which the College is meeting its goals.
The President’s Staff developed Annual Strategic Priorities to focus the College’s efforts on eight of its identified strategies and increase its accountability. These eight priorities are assigned to the vice presidents for implementation, and the progress toward achievement is reported regularly in staff meetings. Here we should refer to the annual strategic priorities, identify how they were chosen, and how the progress was reported in the staff meetings.
1.B.2The institution engages in systematic planning for, and evaluation of, its activities, including teaching, research, and public service consistent with institutional mission and goals. The College uses the Mission and Goals intentionally in its planning and evaluation of activities. It engages on a fairly regular basis, though this is most true of the Annual Strategic Priorities. The systematic planning and evaluation is evident in most areas of the College in response to problems (example?)The College, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service Review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a three-year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the Strategic Plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community.
Evaluation of the faculty -- adjunct, full-time probationary and tenured -- uses multiple indices and is systematic. Insert adjunct process here. Probationary faculty participate in a rigorous and regimented probationary review process and tenured faculty are required to participate in a five-year review process including evaluation from students, colleagues and other self-evaluation activities. Class scheduling is planned and evaluated (proof?) systematically and the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan regularly reviews student enrollment patterns within the context of the service area’s diverse communities. In addition, the CCSE was facilitated and the results shared with the campus community and used for planning. Graduate & Employer Surveys are regularly conducted to assess the degree to which graduates are meeting the needs of employers. College committees such as Instructional Council and Assessment Research Council systematically plan and evaluate activities. Capital Facilities Master Plan reviews facility requests and design on the goals of student centeredness and effective, efficient, and fiscally accountable operations. IT Strategic Plan is consistent with the mission and goals, but not yet evaluated. Research is not a priority of the College, but the small research projects in anthropology and psychology were approved as consistent with the mission and goals.
Some public service activities are evaluated based upon goals and mission, but the system or overview of public service may not be systematically planned for or evaluated. Many of the community service activities sponsored by the College seem to be initiated by programs, departments, faculty or staff rather than driven by administrative priorities. 1.B.3The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties.The governance system at SPSCC supports the college’s mission, values, strategic directions and learning outcomes. The stakeholders (Board of Trustees, students, classified staff, faculty and the exempt /administrative staff members) have a role to play in the college’s governance system.
The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituent group. (Coats) “The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.” Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.”
More members of the staff are involved in the College’s decision-making processes. In 2008, for the first time, State mandated budgetary reductions were discussed at length by the President of the College, members of the Administration and the College Council . As a result, the college community was asked to present their ideas for cost savings. These ideas were sorted by the Administration, reviewed and prioritized by the Council, and implemented as prioritized. An annual small equipment budgeting process was established in 2007 whereby administrators, classified staff and faculty meet together to evaluate and prioritize campus-wide requests for small equipment from a central pool. Another example of this improvement is that of the faculty hiring prioritization committee. Members included the Instructional Vice President, Division Deans and faculty. Rationales for filing positions were presented through proposal packets and a vote of the membership determined which positions were filled. (link) The College’s values of operating in an atmosphere of accountability and respect, accepting responsibilities to the communities we serve, and fostering inclusiveness drive the participatory nature of its planning. This is evident in the planning process for the Campus Center , the Enrollment Management Team, the Assessment & Research Councils, the development of the Program Review process, regularly conducted open forums, and strategic planning which includes board members, students and community representatives..
Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory:
1.B.4 The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
Historical info- shift 4 years ago from a formula-driven budgeting process to a process driven by institutional prioritization. The College has been using the results of evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities. ·This is evident in the 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard Two that outlines how the institution has used the results of _ and _ to increase online offerings and support and to establish the rationale for large equipment purchases and fulltime faculty hiring prioritization. ·The single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies. ·Student Services uses the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop its action plans and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid. The 2008 CCSSE indicated that those services had improved and inspired Student Services to continue that level of service. ·College-wide program/service review will inform prioritization of hiring and equipment ·What about the evaluation of college/classroom climate incidences and progress toward respect for diversity Prior 2009-2010 these efforts had been systematic in that they are planned and scheduled, but are not College wide. To achieve the system-wide use of the evaluation data and planning activities, the College has instituted and implemented a Program and Service Review Summer 2009, evaluated and modified. Then a schedule based on a three-year review cycle was developed. This process systematizes and complements the existing evaluation and processes identified above.
1. B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement. The Annual Strategic Priorities/Initiatives which are based on the Strategic Plan use data from the community survey, the CCSSE report, the Fact Book results, the Diversity Plan, (future) Program Review documents, This process is done each _ by a group consisting of . These priorities are then distributed by _ to.
In 2008 the college brought in George Copa to lead a cross campus committee through the an evaluation and planning process for an integrated Student Services, E-Learning, and Library building. This process used a technique that built a shared vision for the building upon the shared values of the staff, community and students. This process will be used to help the institution create ownership of the results and give a more comprehensive plan for others to implement. Strengths: · The College has or is developing procedures to evaluate achievement of institutional goals at the program/service level.
The college-wide ability rubrics, the department/program assessment plans, the program review are all examples of current tools. These pieces are clearly visible and do provide information about the College's achievement of its goal. · The President’s Staff is priority driven.
In place are strong administrative teams at the President’s Staff and Division Dean level who make decisions based on the College priorities (does this feel like a strength already noted in I.A?) · Institutional research is used to evaluate and to inform planning.
The Office of Institutional research gathers and provides data to give direction to planning and resource allocation. · Increased involvement of College staff in planning.
Committees and councils dedicated to planning and recommending action at the college level are representative of a variety of departments and programs. Processes and recommendations made by such committees are shared campus-wide.
Weaknesses: · We do not have a visible comprehensive plan to evaluate the College's achievement of Mission and Goals.
The mission seems to broad to evaluate and the number of objectives and strategies too many to consistently evaluate. · Progress reports of core and strategic indicators that go to the Board are not shared with the community.
Top-tier administrators are well informed but staff, faculty and community members are not given these reports. · Communication internally and externally is not systematic or always effective.
In addition to Board and President’s Staff reports not always readily available, communication with the community is funneled through College Relations and intentionally not done by staff and faculty in other areas of the College.
Recommendations: · Revise the College Mission, Goals, & Strategies · Develop a comprehensive plan to evaluate and communicate the College’s achievement of goals to both internal and external communities.
Improve external communications to the community.
[i] Nancy’s Operating Budget Process – Fiscal Year 2007-2008 documents
1.A.1 The current mission statement and strategic plan emerged from a Strategic Planning process that included forty representatives from all service and program areas on both Mottman and Hawks Prairie campuses, including students, faculty, staff and the Board of Trustees http://inside.spscc.ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Strategic%20Planning. It was launched in a two-day retreat held at Hawks Prairie on May 9 and 10, 2007. A smaller group met during the next two months to develop a focused, prioritized plan to direct the future work of the College. College groups/forums provided input into the process of identifying the College’s values. In June a fairly complete draft was published for review by the college community. It was revised over the summer and presented again during in Fall 2007 to the college community. On Dec. 13 the final draft was presented to the Board for its first reading and adoption. Then beginning mid-Dec. strategy teams were formed to identify initiatives, attach new or existing measures to objectives, and establish baselines in ensure accountability and efficiency. ·Defined the mission ·Considered and prioritized multiple objectives ·Generated the list of shared values that informed the priority of the objectives ·Found consensus evident in the current SP
There were representatives from the community and local institutions present at some stages of the strategic planning process, and the Plan was presented to the community in the Spring 2008 (p5) issue of Soundings~ The Magazine of South Puget Sound Community College. The current plan will be reexamined during the 2009-2010 academic year according to the College’s three-year review cycle.
The mission and values are well understood by the members of the President’s Staff; however, they are less well understood by many in the wider College community with some exceptions. Staff and faculty who request professional development funds, equipment or staff positions or who serve on decision-making committees such as the Equipment Budget Committee and College Council build their rationale or make their decisions based upon the strategic plan.
1.A.2 The mission, goals and objectives are published in the college catalog (08-09 College Catalog4), and on the College website, the mission and values are published on the“Welcome to South Puget Sound” page and the entire Strategic Plan is published on the Administration page.
1.A.3 Progress toward accomplishing the College’s mission and goals is documented through reports to the Board of Trustees (as stated in the Spring 2009 Soundings) and made public piecemeal to the campus community through all staff meetings, to the campus community and the community-at-large in the fall “State of the College” report, and to some portions of the community at large through Soundings that is distributed to those who donate to the college. Other specific reports—such as the report on the College’s recycling and composting efforts—are distributed through campus e-mails and reports in the campus newsletter The Wave.
1.A.4 Goals are determined consistent with the institution’s mission and its resources - human, physical, and financial. College's goals -- student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability -- are consistent with its mission "engaging our community in learning . . . for life" and values that state South Puget Sound Community College . . .
pursues excellence
operates in an atmosphere of accountability and respect
accepts responsibilities to the communities we serve
fosters inclusiveness at our campuses
provides student-centered education
The College's goals are consistent with its resources.
The strategies outlined in Strategic Plan connect the mission/goals to the resources.
1.A.5 The interviews with President Pumphrey and all of the VP's made clear that the mission and goals (objectives/strategies) are giving direction to the senior administration. All spoke of the annual strategic priorities as drivers of their work and regular meetings as feedback sessions, and they spoke of tying the work of their service or program areas to these priorities. There is ample evidence that this is the case especially in decision-making committees and councils:
1.Respond to the increasing demand for online and hybrid offerings
2.Implement systematic academic assessment that evaluates student learning outcomes in major program areas and in general education (add link to library’s accreditation web page when available)
3.Develop and implement a strategic enrollment management plan)
4.Address community and business environmental changes through dynamic planning
5.Systematically assess and improve processes and procedures
6.Develop and implement a marketing plan
7.Design and implement a staffing model that supports efficient and accessible operations.
8.Implement a systematic instructional program review process that integrates academic assessment and planning and influences resource allocation.
What is less certain is the extent to which knowledge of these priorities filters down the hierarchy. Here we need to provide information that suggests the lack of “widely understood” knowledge.
1.A.6 The College’s public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. ·Participation in community organizations and events: College classified staff, faculty and administrators are involved in a wide range of charitable and service organizations. ·College-sponsored or college-partnered activities: Expanding your Horizons, Latino Youth Summit, parenting lecture series ·College services to the community: Small Business Council, Dental Clinic, Fresh Measures?? ·Charitable contributions: Combined Fund Drive ·Art Gallery Space
1.A.7 During the 2008-2009 academic year the College in the person of the Vice President for Instruction sought approval from the Commission on two occasions: to offer an Associate of Arts degree entirely online and to rename the professional/technical degrees Associate of Applied Science (AAS or AAS-T).
Analysis
Strengths: informed sense of direction
Strong upper management shares a clear vision of the mission and goals of the college. They work together well as a team and use this vision to direct the work of those in their different areas of the College. ·VP for Instruction uses the mission and goals to drive the work of the academic deans and directors and the various committees and councils that she chairs; ·Dr. Rhonda Coats uses the Strategic Plan to guide the work of Student Services; ·Clearly the VP for Administration has a clear vision and uses it to manage the financial resource of the College and to direct the work of the services
Leading by example informed by a clear vision is good but insufficient.
Use data to drive decisions (IR-Darby); involve more people in the decision-making processes
Another strength is staff/faculty committed to a general mission of community colleges and this College, inspired by good will and
Weaknesses: ·Mission & goals posted in offices around campus are out of date. ·Mission & goals missing from Student Programs webpages ·Communication to staff and the community at large oStated so generally that connecting specific goals or strategies to the mission is difficult. oValues apparent but not clear how they inform the goals and strategies. oProgram/service area planning is not specifically tied to SP oReports of progress are data driven but not connected from SP o o—references & reports not always clearly tied to the SP oLacks specifics of the application of those principles or reports of the progress toward the goals. oNot readily available to College community at large. oNot always recognizable. ·A general vision of the goals of the college is not adequate to unify the College in its efforts. ·The College community lacks information about the specific strategic priorities and doesn’t recognize reports of progress when they are communicated.
Recommendations: post the plan and be sure that it is apparent around campus: documents, postings, etc.
Explicitly communicate specifics about the plan and the progress to all stakeholders.
Make it recognizable.
Present it regularly (on an annual basic: Fall these are our annual priorities; Winter this is our progress toward the goal; spring here’s how we’re doing and what we’ll do next.
Continue to integrate the SP in all of the college ·needs to be informed about the annual strategic priorities and the progress toward them.
1.B.1 The College uses comparative data( achievements of meeting goals/deadline) and reviews these regularly. Do we have a definition of the evaluation processes? it's kind of a new process or expectation. Evaluation process is more data-driven, and data is more appropriate to the objective or goal. How were these developed? the program review were developed with a task force; true too the the equipment prioritization task force; part of the process is an annual critique
The College defines its evaluation and planning processes clearly. This is true of the evaluations of personnel at the college. (student, peer, evaluations).
However, the process of evaluating programs and services is under way, and there is current conversation about the evaluation of our College processes. ·Online classes –both the technology and the instruction—are in the queue for a more clearly defined process. ELearning evaluation will be built into all of the online classes.
The College defines its planning processes clearly. ·This was true of the previous strategic plan and is under development for the next plan. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan. ·It planned it budget reduction, capital improvements, the large equipment prioritization and the fulltime faculty prioritization process clearly. This is also true for the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. The planning process for the business office ??? is it clearly defined?
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help indicate the extent to which the College is meeting its goals.
The President’s Staff developed Annual Strategic Priorities to focus the College’s efforts on eight of its identified strategies and increase its accountability. These eight priorities are assigned to the vice presidents for implementation, and the progress toward achievement is reported regularly in staff meetings. Here we should refer to the annual strategic priorities, identify how they were chosen, and how the progress was reported in the staff meetings.
1.B.2The institution engages in systematic planning for, and evaluation of, its activities, including teaching, research, and public service consistent with institutional mission and goals.
The College uses the mission (as it is) and goals intentionally in its planning and evaluation of activities. It engages on a fairly regular basis, though this is most true of the Annual Strategic Priorities. The systematic planning and evaluation is evident in most areas of the College in response to problems. The program review is an effort to systematize and make inclusive this process. The college, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service Review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process will be conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a 3 year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the strategic plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community. Teaching –Class scheduling is planned and evaluated systematically based upon its mission and goals. Evaluation of the faculty—adjunct & fulltime—using multiple indices.
Strategic Enrollment Management Plan regularly reviews student enrollment patterns within the context of the service area’s diverse communities.
CCSE survey of student engagements fits here.
Graduate & Employer Surveys
Instructional Council and ARC systematically plan and evaluate activities.
Capital Facilities Master Plan reviews facility requests and design on the goals of student centeredness and effective, efficient, and fiscally accountable operations.
IT Strategic Plan is consistent with the mission and goals, but not yet evaluated. Nascent Program Review is systematic and used for planning and evaluation of all area of the College. Research is not a priority of the College, but the small research projects in anthropology and psychology were approved as consistent with the mission and goals. Speak briefly about Dale’s work at the wet site and current Psychology research project. Some public service activities are evaluated based upon goals and mission, but the system or overview of public service may not be systematically planned for or evaluated. We need to know more about what we do or choose not to do for public service. Operations: ·Strategic planning accompanies operational and budget planning at the executive, mid-management and unit level where the levels mutually inform and support one another. ·To better align planning and budgeting, the college’s two year planning cycle parallels the legislative biennial budgeting cycle. ·Institutional priorities provide direction to operational planning. Figure xx illustrates the planning process and input from various constituents. (How/why did we get to the current planning process?) (example of Operational/Budget development process and/or plans?)
Evidence that demonstrates the planning, analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes such as ·College mission ·College goals ·Analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes/planning ostudies of alumni and former students ostudies regarding effectiveness of programs and their graduates ostudies that indicate degree of success in placing graduates opre- and post-test comparisons of student knowledge, skills, and abilities osurveys of satisfaction - students, alumni, and employees 1.B.3The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties.The governance system at SPSCC supports the college’s mission, values, strategic directions and learning outcomes. The stakeholders (Board of Trustees, students, classified staff, faculty and the exempt /administrative staff members) have a role to play in the college’s governance system.
The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituent group. (Coats) “The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.” More members of the staff are involved in the College’s decision-making processes. (here we need some before/after examples, data as evidence). The equipment and faculty hiring prioritization committees are examples of this improvement.
The College’s values of operating in an atmosphere of accountability and respect, accepting responsibilities to the communities we serve, and fostering inclusiveness drive the participatory nature of its planning. This is evident in the Enrollment Management Team, the Assessment & Research Councils, the development of the Program Review process, etc. ·college-wide planning—budget reduction; equipment; development of program review process & documents—staff from all areas of the college ·open forums—all staff ·strategic planning—board members and students and community reps. ·
The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students and other interested parties.
Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory.
1.B.4 The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
Historical info- shift 4 years ago from a formula-driven budgeting process to a process driven by institutional prioritization. The College has been using the results of evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities. ·This is evident in the 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard Two that outlines how the institution has used the results of _ and _ to increase online offerings and support and to establish the rationale for large equipment purchases and fulltime faculty hiring prioritization. ·The single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies. ·Student Services uses the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop its action plans and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid. The 2008 CCSSE indicated that those services had improved and inspired Student Services to continue that level of service. ·College-wide program/service review will inform prioritization of hiring and equipment ·What about the evaluation of college/classroom climate incidences and progress toward respect for diversity Prior 2009-2010 these efforts had been systematic in that they are planned and scheduled, but are not College wide. To achieve the system-wide use of the evaluation data and planning activities, the College has instituted and implemented a Program and Service Review process that will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus, and the results will be used to influence allocation and improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified. Then a schedule based on a three-year review cycle was developed. This process systematizes and complements the existing evaluation and processes identified above. 1. B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement.
Annual Strategic Priorities/Initiatives ·VP’s and Presidents staff function around these priorities ·Institutional priorities based on oStrategic plan and goals and college objectives oAccreditation reports oData from the community survey oDiversity plan [i] ·Example of using evaluation/planning oGeorge Copa’s work in setting the foundation for One Stop Student Services & SEM
1.B.6 The institution provides the necessary resources for effective evaluation and planning processes. The College has been very fiscally supportive of all institutional research efforts. Since Feb. 2007 the College’s funding for Institutional Research has supported one fulltime position and supplies, travel, etc. However, those resources were not adequate to support the research necessary for overall institutional evaluation. To provide more information for evaluation and planning, the College has allocated additional funds to purchase survey instruments, materials and software (CCSSE, Graduate Survey, etc.). In addition, the College has provided funds for the professional development of the institutional researcher and hired support staff.
1.B.7The institution’s research is integrated with and supportive of institutional evaluation and planning. Institutional research is entirely integrated with evaluation and planning. IR’s purpose is to look for the answers to the questions “how are we doing” and “how could we be doing things better.”
IR is the primary data source for information about the ongoing operation of the college, and that data has been used in multiple ways for evaluation and planning. The following chart offers examples.
Group or Project Name
Type of data
Purpose
Accreditation Support
surveys
·Support self-study
Assessment Guideline for ARC
Assessment data
·Assist development of a common framework for assessment
Core Indicator Summary & Fact Book
Institutional indicators
·Identify trends . . . patterns ??? demographics? ·Determine “health” of the College ·Inform the Board of Trustees, College community and the report to the public
Department or Service Areas Surveys (i.e. IT, Student Senate, Sustainability Committee)
Original research: quantitative & qualitative data
·Plan and evaluation ·Customer satisfaction
Master Planning
Enrollment data
·Plan size of Hawks/Marvin Road campus ·Plan parking on Mottman campus
Program Review
List general categories
·Provide common data to all programs and service areas
Strategic Enrollment Management Plan—Core Oversight Group
·Develop strategic plan ·Track progress on annual strategic priorities
1.B.8 The institution systematically reviews its institutional research efforts, IR evaluation processes, and its planning activities to document their effectiveness. The data and reports from Institutional Research are reviewed regularly as a result of presentations to the College’s many stakeholders: Master Planning Group, Strategic Enrollment Management Core Oversight Group, Board of Trustees, Presidents Staff, Assessment and Research Council, Instructional Programs. Furthermore, the personnel in the office undergo regular exempt and classified staff evaluations using the standard forms.
The College-wide Program/Service Area Review documents the effectiveness of IR’s research, evaluation and planning.
1.B.9 The institution uses information from its planning and evaluation processes to communicate evidence of institutional effectiveness to its public. ·The College community receives evidence of institutional effectiveness in an annual state of the college address and through e-mailed communiqués and all-staff meetings. These communications include information from the College’s planning and evaluation processes. However, the information may not be recognized as evidence of institutional progress. oFact book available to the college community ·Because more people are involved, more members of the staff understand. ·There is an overall increase in College staff’s understanding of the strategic plan and reports of progress of institutional effectiveness because more members of the College staff are involved in the decision-making processes, councils and committees that tie resource allocation to the strategic plan. ·General public only generally aware of the College – its mission, goals and opportunities for the communities ·College Council’s new formation provides college-wide oversight, planning and communication of information to the College community. ·The closer you are to the work-decision making-resource allocation that goes on on campus, the more likely you are to understand the strategic plan and recognize the reports of institutional progress. ·External communications: Soundings published and sent to Foundation board members, retired faculty and staff, foundation donors in the last five years and in-kind donors in the last five years, “friends” of the foundation in last five years (at a particular donor level), legislators, lifetime and endowed scholarship donors, the governor, CTC presidents and communication directors, state board staff, current and former trustees, local diversity leasers, local officials, politicians, schools and school counselors, chamber leaders, K-12 superintendents in district, higher education leaders, advisory committee members, sister college presidents, state agency heads, college staff and faculty. 2008 mailing was 3, 250. Spring 2009 edition contained a ten-year longitudinal report. ·Internal communications: The Wave and The Sounds Analysis:
Strengths: We do have procedures in place or in the works to evaluate this achievement. Pieces are in place or in the works: the college-wide ability rubrics, the department/program assessment plans, the program review. These pieces are clearly visible and do provide information about the College's achievement of its goal. ·Commonly held values & expectations ·President’s staff is priority driven ·Strong administrative teams at the President’s Staff and Division Dean level ·Increased involvement of College staff in decision-making processes. & resulting increase in understanding of strategic plan and progress toward objectives. ·Some opportunities to communicate with the community are realized in the processes of Student Service work of outreach and recruitment and in College staff involvement in community groups.
Challenges: ·We do have procedures in place or in the works to evaluate this achievement. But not an overall (comprehensive) plan to evaluate the College's achievement of goals. ·Too broad a mission ·Too many objectives & strategies ·Still limits to college-wide understanding of strategic plan and how it drives us ·Haphazard Dissemination of current mission & goals to all parts of the College community ·Progress reports of core and strategic indicators that go to the board are not shared with the community ·Communications with the community is funneled through College Relations and intentionally not done by folks in other areas of the College. ·Communication is haphazard ·Opportunities for growth with technology
Recommendations: laying out the process for evaluating achievement. Revise Mission, Goals, Strategies ·Narrow the focus of the mission in the second round of strategic planning ·Fine-tune the objectives and strategies using the new accreditation standards ·Post the current mission and goals to all parts of the College community
Improve communications: Develop a comprehensive plan to evaluate and communicate the College’s achievement of goals to both internal and external communities.
Internal communications oShare the progress reports of the core and strategic indicators with the community oCommunicate how the College Council processes and decisions are informed by the strategic plan and publish the decisions and impact of the decisions. oIncrease understanding of SP and progress toward its achievement by involving more of the college community at an appropriate level of decision-making oGive wider access to the content of Board study sessions to the college community before the meeting oSupplement the on-campus annual progress report with quarterly updates—easily accessible on the College intranet oPost informative reports to the Board on the website
External communications oIncrease the visibility of the College’s strategic plan oIncrease the specificity of the reports to the community on the strategic plan and progress towards its goals oInclude in the progress reports to the community the context of the strategic plan oReconsider more direct avenues of communication with the community appropriate to some areas of the College
(1). Questions about Soundings., email response from Dean of College Relations.document xxxx
_ From THIS POINT THESE ARE NOTES FROM FIRST DRAFT:
1.A Mission and GoalsThe institution’s mission and goals define the institution, including its educational activities, its student body, and its role within the higher education community. The evaluation proceeds from the institution’s own definition of its mission and goals. Such evaluation is to determine the extent to which the mission and goals are achieved and are consistent with the Commission’s Eligibility Requirements and standards for accreditation.
1.A.1 The institution’s mission and goals derive from, or are widely understood by, the campus community, are adopted by the governing board, and are periodically reexamined.
The college's mission and goals were derived from a process during which representatives from all service and departmental areas on both Mottman and Hawk's Prairie campuses(http://inside.spscc.ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Strategic%20Planning ) participated.The Board of Trustees were also highly involved in the planning process//http://inside,spscc,ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Trustees/minutes/Archives/2007.(**Note**//: need the DATE of this-not in bibliography))
Mission and goals are derived from the Strategic Planning Process bringing together inclusive representation from from the college community, including the Board of Trustees. (See the representation of the task force's membership)
Mission and goals were adopted by the Board of Trustees (minutes of the board meeting-date needed).
Mission and goals (and objectives) are examined periodically on a three-year cycle. The current strategic plan is in effect from 2007 to 2010. (Here we can include the dates of the last two strategic planning sessions and the date of the next two.
Mission and goals (and objectives) are "widely understood by the campus community." In spite of the "or" in 1A1, we should check the understanding of the mission and goals in the campus community. Our interviews the the VP's and President Pumphrey reveals that the senior administrators clearly understand and are guided by the Strategic Plan. We can also spotcheck understanding by staff members whose professional development, staff and equipment requests are required to be linked to the strategic plan. That might be enough of a sign to demonstrate "widely understood," or we could do a survey to check this understanding more broadly. One situation exists now: a previously adopted Mission/Goals statement is posted in public spaces and individual offices around the campuses and can be found in brief on staff name tags. +
Strengths are: directly derived from goals, particularly at the President’s staff level (Discussion that it should be “and” not “or” in “derive from or are widely understood by,”)
Challenge/Weakness is: mission and goals not widely understood. Need a survey to determine this. While Soundings goes out to members of the community through the Foundation college goals are not widely known in the community.
1.A.2 The mission, as adopted by the governing board, appears in appropriate institutional publications, including the catalog.
The mission of the college appears on its web site (http://www.spscc.ctc.edu/about/mission-values.html), in Soundings (a publication for college donors), and in the college catalogs. (check on Student gov't publications?) +-
Strengths: Yes, generally true.
Weakness: The most current, updated, mission statement needs to be distributed again.
Recommendation: The mission statement needs more visibility campus-wide. More needs to be done to make sure outdated mission statements(which are prevalent) need to be destroyed and replaced with the current one. Name tags and other identifying clothing should bear the college's mission statement. The mission statement should appear on the Student Government web page. 1.A.3Progress in accomplishing the institution’s mission and goals is documented and made public.
Progress twoard mission/goals -- through the strategic plan-- is documented and mostly (I am not happy with this word) made public. However, it is possible that many in the campus community don't recognize the information shared as reports of this progress. (See 1A5) +-
Strength: Depends on what public: the administration is strong and the admin group understands the mission & goals internally.
Weakness: There is a disconnect as to how mission and goals are communicated to the public, and sometimes the staff/faculty as SPSCC too.
Our info is not really made public. How is the Report to the Community published and where does it appear?
Recommendation: Find a way to help the college community know how we are accomplishing our mission and goals. Become more obvious off-campus, help the college community recognize how the school is accomplishing mission and goals and fulfilling the strategic plan. Increase campus awareness overall.
President's "State of the College" report is conducted each fall, and is open to all staff and faculty as well as the public.
The _ issues of The Soundings magazine featured the president's report to the community on the institution's accomplishments of its mission and goals in
(mm)
*
(yy).
All-campus meetings focused on reporting progress.
All-campus e-mails updating the campus community the progress toward specific strategic priorities. (14 April 2009 "About Recycling" from Nancy Johnson)
1.A.4Goals are determined consistent with the institution’s mission and its resources - human, physical, and financial.
College's goals -- student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability -- are consistent with its mission "engaging our communnity in learning . . . for life" and values that state South Puget Sound CC . . .
pursues excellence
operates in an atmosphere of accountability and respect
accepts responsibilities to the communities we serve
fosters inclusiveness at our campuses
provides student-centered education
The College's goals are consistent with its resources.
Human Resources: Hiring, staffing and opportunityfor professional development support student-centeredness and College effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability. Fulltime faculty prioritization process and scoring rubrics are tied to and consistent with objectives, strategic plan and Strategic Enrollment Management plan. Scoring is a holistic ranking of requests. Process is not data-driven.
Physical Resources: Grounds, buildings, building utilization and levels of maintenance support student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountabilit. Scheduling policy of classes first--other requests not until 10th class day reveals student-centeredness.
Financial Resources: Financial resources and resource allocation processes support student-centeredness and college efffectiveness, efficiency and fiscal accountability. Equipment prioritization process is tied to and consistent with goals and tied to mission/goals;strategies, and the results of criteria-based scores are recorded. Transparency offers assurance that process is consistent with college goals.
The strategies outlined in Strategic Plan connect the mission/goals to the resources.
+ Strengths: Yes, the college is accomplishing this generally
Weaknesses: Language of the mission statement is so general that it’s difficult to connect specific goals to it. It is difficult to see that goals are directly connected more to values and values to the mission statement.
Recommendations: Integrate values into the mission statement.
(Note: Combine 1.A.4 & 1.A.5)
1.A.5The institution’s mission and goals give direction to all its educational activities, to its admission policies, selection of faculty, allocation of resources, and to planning.
The college's mission and goacls give direction to educational activities: increase online/hybrid course offerings is one strategy on strategic plan and an annual strategic priority.
College's mission and goals give direction to its admission policies:
College's mission and goals give direction to its selection of faculty: holistic ranking of fulltime faculty requests rather than ranking by criteria does not reveal that mission/goals give direction to prioritization of faculty positions.
College's mission and goals give direction to its allocation of resources: Equipment prioritization task force with a criteria-based ranking process reveals that mission/goals give direction to prioritization. College Council's budget reduction process with a criteria-based ranking process reveals that mission/goals (core mission here) gave direction to reductions.
College's mission and goals give direction to its planning:
Analysis and Appraisal
The interviews with President Pumphrey and all of the VP's made clear that the mission and goals (objectives/strategies) are giving direction to the senior administration. All spoke of the annual strategic priorities as drivers of their work and regular feedback sessions in their weekly (?) meetings. What we are less certain of is the extent to which knowledge of these priorities filters down the hierarchy. We might wish to include questions about this in a college-wide survey.
+
1.A.6
Public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. (Public service=anything thatwe do that is not a part of the core mission.)
College personnels' service in the community: service group memberships, board memberships, etc.
Latino Youth Summit? (Clearly consistent with mission/goals, but we're uncertain if the participants' registration through Community Education would qualify it as a part of the core mission.)
Expanding your Horizons
Individual Art Shows (evidence--no-cost application for indiviidual shows)
Complimentary Tickets/Pizza Feeds for high schooldrama students and their teachers A
1.A.7
The institution reviews with the Commission, contemplated changes that would alter its mission, autonomy, ownership or locus of control, or its intention to offer a degree at a higher level than is included in its present accreditation, or other changes in accordance with//Policy A-2 //Substantive Change////.
Two recent contemplated changes have been reviewed with the Commission:
renaming the professional/technical degrees Associate of Applied Sciences (AAS or AAS-T)
offering an Associate of ARts fully online.
We have correspondence for both of these reviews. +
Strength: Yes, mostly true. Moving ATA to AAS, and AA degree offered online. Weakenesses
Recomendations 1.B- Planning and Effectiveness The institution engages in ongoing planning to achieve its mission and goals. It also evaluates how well, and in what ways, it is accomplishing its mission and goals and uses the results for broadbased, continuous planning and evaluation. Through its planning process, the institution asks questions, seeks answers, analyzes itself, and revises its goals, policies, procedures, and resource allocation.
1.B.1 The institution clearly defines its evaluation and planning processes. It develops and implements procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals.
. When evaluating proposals and requests, the process is communicated to decision-makers and those affected. For example the evaluation of budget reduction strategies, large equipment prioritization lists, fulltime faculty hiring requests (??) all include criteria reflective of the College’s Strategic Plan.
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves Institutional Goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help determine the extent to which the College is meeting its goals. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan. Keeping informed through conversations with members of the campus community is also a way of gathering anecdotal information about how well the College is meeting its goals. Listening to students, community members, staff, and faculty helps to determine the extent to which needs are being met. Board meetings and President’s Staff meetings are a way to share areas of progress and opportunity.
President Pumphrey is implementing, next year, a plan to facilitate evaluation and accountability of the College’s progress in meeting its goals. He plans to set eight Annual Strategic Priorities that will provide focus for the year. Each Vice President will be responsible for different Priorities which will facilitate more substantive progress in those areas. +- Strengths
Mission/values/goals give direction to the senior administrators and their work in the college. All interviews with these administratos revealed a profound knowledge of andcommitment to the mission/goals and the 2008-2009 Strategic Priorities.
Strength: Yes, we develop procedures. Missing items are checking data and making changes based on the data. (may also apply to 1B4)
Challenges
We noted a circumscribed feedback loop about the annual strategic priorities, and though we found significant information about the progress toward meeting the College's goals/objectives/strategies shared with the wider college community about, we don't yet know how widely the campus community understands how this information relateds to the College's mission/goals.
1.B.2The institution engages in systematic planning for, and evaluation of, its activities, including teaching, research, and public service consistent with institutional mission and goals.
The college evaluates services, programs, and curriculum annually through college wide and divisional planning sessions, planning and directional retreats, surveys, and periodic evaluations. During 2007-08 the college formed a representative strategic planning workgroup (list members?) which formulated the South Puget Sound Community College Strategic Plan 2007-2010 identifying Goals, objectives and strategies. (insert or append). (Briefly discuss key goals and strategies underway; how have activities accomplished some of these goals?) The strategic plan and goals were distributed throughout the college and community for review and included college wide meetings (dates and feedback summary?). An Institutional Researcher was hired in 2008(?) to facilitate research and data mining. (explain some achievements) The SBCTC provides system wide and institutional data. (How is this used?) Divisions and department plans must tie goals to college goals. (example?)
Strategic planning accompanies operational and budget planning at the executive, mid-management and unit level where the levels mutually inform and support one another. To better align planning and budgeting, the college’s two year planning cycle parallels the legislative biennial budgeting cycle. Institutional priorities provide direction to operational planning and support a mutual planning cycle. Figure xx illustrates the planning process and input from various constituents. (How/why did we get to the current planning process?) (example of Operational/Budget development process and/or plans?) The college also completed an Instructional reorganization plan, Student Services Enrollment Strategic Plan, a Facilities Master Plan, and an IT Strategic Plan. (Copy of major goals?) Discuss representative process and outcomes?
The college has recently completed student surveys about student services and instructional studies. (include highlights). Surveys of employee engagement and development were completed (year) and discussed in classified and administrative staff meetings (dates) with results highlighting (brief list). Unit/program service level surveys are underway and may indicate….. (What can be said about these). The unit/program assessment process incorporated college goals and measurable objectives to evaluate and improve the college’s effectiveness and will provide quantitative data supporting specific success indicators (such as….). The college process to obtain feedback from the general community includes…. Instructional programs build curriculum profiles and goals at the individual course, department, and institutional level. Institutional, department, and course learning outcomes are established, updated annually, and tied to the college strategic plan. Each faculty member is evaluated annually as noted in the section on Standard 4. These evaluations include student evaluation of course and performance evaluations. Each administrator’s performance is evaluated every two years by their supervisor. On “some cycle”? every faculty member undergoes a comprehensive evaluation of their teaching, professional development, and service. Guidelines on evaluation, promotion and tenure can be found in polices ….? Results briefly indicate…. Evidence that demonstrates the planning, analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes such as ·College mission ·College goals ·Analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes/planning ostudies of alumni and former students ostudies regarding effectiveness of programs and their graduates ostudies that indicate degree of success in placing graduates opre- and post-test comparisons of student knowledge, skills, and abilities osurveys of satisfaction - students, alumni, and employees Strengths
Awareness of planning importance
Strategic planning as a participatory process along with need to integrate and coordinate and thinking along new directions
History of planning and data informed decisions
Strong commitment to planning within executive team, senior leadership and mid-level management
Alignment of priority and budget process with College Council
Weaknesses
College planning process may not be widely understood
Data mining and surveys becoming more a part of college culture
Declining state revenues may hinder new strategic initiatives and directions
….
Remediation/Action plans
Communication
Participation
Evaluation
+
Strength: Yes, generally but needs to be clearer and need more evidence of it. (See Julians write-up)
1.B.3The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties. The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students and other interested parties.
The college has developed a system-wide planning process that links strategic planning, insititutional effectiveness, and educational assessment. The Strategic Planning process has a broad scope and coordination of efforts. In 2007? 2008? The strategic planning process was redesigned. The college completed a comprehensive review (see page 37 of the Chemeketa CC planning and effectiveness statement. Possibly compare SPSCC situation to that one.)
The Enrollment Management Team consists of representatives from student services, instruction, faculty, administrative services and human resources. The Strategic Enrollment Management Team will develop an enrollment plan that will determine, within the academic context of the college, the size and mix of the student body. The enrollment management plan is an active component of the college’s Strategic Plan.
The Assessment & Research Council is made up of vice presidents (2), division and department deans (7), directors (2), faculty (11), Hawks Prairie representative and student representation (1).
Governance Model: The governance system at SPSCC supports the college’s mission, values, strategic directions and learning outcomes. The stakeholders (Board of Trustees, students, classified staff, faculty and the exempt /administrative staff members) have a role to play in the college’s governance system. The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituent group. (Coats) “The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.” Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory.
1.B.4The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
The college, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process will be conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a 3 year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the strategic plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community.
Darby The main place where you can find very specific references to this idea is actually our 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard 2. I am attaching a copy and if you look on page 11 the last paragraph through the end of that general recommendation outlines how the institution has used the results of evaluations and strategic processes for resource allocation and planning. Some specific examples include increasing online offerings and support, the large equipment process, and the full-time faculty hiring process. I know you are already aware of these activities in general, but this document gives you more information about how they all relate to resources and planning. The other document that I am attached is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies. This is probably the single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation.
Dorna- Strategic initiatives within both the strategic plan and the strategic enrollment plan as a backdrop for prioritizing new f/t faculty hires. Each year for the past three years – by the time the self-study report goes to print it will be four years – a group of faculty and deans review proposals the deans have developed to provide the rationale as to why they are requesting consideration for XX f/t, tenure track faculty position. This year deans were required to identify what initials/goal in the S/P or S/E/M plan supported the position being requested. (FYI I believe this is covered in Standard 4 as well.) Dave Kohler – business office - allocation Rhonda - In Student Services we use the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop our action and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid awarding. In the 2008 CCSSE those results improved and we have maintained those services. _
Strength:
Weakness: Lack of Program Review (productivity, staffing, equipment, mission, etc.) a weakness. Program review information could be used to define and refine our processes. It’s difficult to know if we are adding/dropping right classes, etc. The economy is affecting how we assess our programs and how much is spent. More systematic, create a bigger picture to serve the entire school.
1.B.5The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement.
In what ways is your research integrated with institutional evaluation and planning? In what ways does it support evaluation and planning? “Integrate” is an interesting word choice, because it suggests that there is research going on that is aside from institutional evaluation and planning, which is not the case. IR’s purpose is to always be looking for the answers to the questions “how are we doing’ and “how could we be doing things better.” “Support” is essentially the same thing in that IR is the primary data source for information about the ongoing operation of the college, and that data has been used in multiple ways for evaluation and planning. Below are some examples of groups/projects that have utilized IR data, the type of data they used, and how it was used: ·Master Planning: Used student enrollment data to plan for the size of the new campus as well as true parking needs on the main campus ·Strategic Enrollment Management Plan Core Oversight Group: Used enrollment, retention, completion, basic skills, and student engagement data to determine which demographic groups needed focus and set goals. Used baseline data to initiate goals and measured progress one year later. ·Strategic Planning: Assisted in developing the plan as a campus community member and have tracked progress on strategic goals using various data ·Core Indicator Summary: Institutional indicators that give a high level picture of the historic and current health of the institution. Presented once a year to the Board of Trustees ·Fact Book: Historical data about a large number of common indicators. Created once a year and provided to the campus community and BOT for their use in their own activities and planning. ·Assessment Guideline: This required quite a bit of research and was presented to ARC and the faculty to assist them in developing a common framework for assessment on our campus. The principles were applied to our assessment process, and the “measure” was the commendation we received from our interim accreditation evaluator about how we now seem to have a culture of assessment and better process. ·Exit Exam Research: This was a study of the effectiveness of the MAPP exam. This combined with evidence from enrollment services was presented to ARC, and shortly after the recommendation was made to IC to discontinue it as a graduation requirement. ·Surveys: IR has helped multiple groups revise, develop, and administer surveys for their own assessment and planning purposes (IT, Student Senate, Sustainability Committee just to name a few) ·Accreditation Support: Surveys and other large amounts of data have been provided in support of the self study ·Program Review: IR will contribute to this important evaluation and planning exercise by providing a common data set to all programs +
Strength: This is accomplished at the presidential staff level.
Recommendation: Focus on Program Review – overseen by College Council.
1.B.6The institution provides the necessary resources for effective evaluation and planning processes.
There has essentially been two processes for IR when it comes to resource allocation. First, I have my budget which includes all the usual stuff such as supplies and travel funds. This generally speaking is quite small, but adequate for those specific items. But, because it is small it has not been adequate to support the greater more high level efforts that are necessary for overall institutional evaluation, and that is where the second process comes in.
These additional efforts are things like the CCSSE survey (about $6,000) and the materials and software required for the Graduate Survey ($200/ year for Survey Monkey plus printing and mailing costs for paper version). When I brought forth the importance of these activities to both my supervisor and other administrators there was no hesitation to cover the cost out of other funds. I have also taken full advantage of professional development funds each year for things that directly contribute to my understanding of institutional research and have consequently had a direct impact on my ability to effectively do my job. Additionally, if there has been anything else that I felt was critical but didn’t have the funds within my IR budget to accomplish it my supervisor was always willing to make it work out of the general administrative services budget. The best example of this was the decision to hire a support person for me. That was not initially budgeted into IR’s area so the funds came from administrative services (I think), but then after more discussion the VP for Instruction agreed to pay the salary for that position out of the Assessment Budget. So again, the institution as a whole has been very fiscally supportive of all institutional research efforts.
1.B.7The institution’s research is integrated with and supportive of institutional evaluation and planning.
1.B.8 The institution systematically reviews its institutional research efforts, its evaluation processes, and its planning activities to document their effectiveness.
How has your work been reviewed in the past? How will the Program/Service Area Review change that review? As IR is a support function for all areas of the college, data and research from IR is “reviewed” each time it is presented to a group. Some examples of IR’s constituencies from the above list are: ·Master Planning Group ·Strategic Enrollment Management Core Oversight Group ·Board of Trustees ·Presidents Staff ·Assessment and Research Council
·Instructional Programs
In addition I went through my regular personnel review this spring where a cross-section of people had an opportunity to critique my work and provide feedback. Program/Service area review will work for IR just like it will for everyone else, and I don’t see anything changing except that the IR office has already started working on our goals based on the service review template, and I believe that the quality of IR’s work and the contribution to the college as a whole will improve as a result of the process.
1.B.9 The institution uses information from its planning and evaluation processes to communicate evidence of institutional effectiveness to its public. Required Documentation: 1. Official statement of the institutional mission: Indicate how and when it was developed, approved, and communicated to the institution’s constituencies. 2. Evidence that demonstrates the analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes. Examples may include: Recommendation: Use the webpage to disseminate more information to improve visibility.
annual goals and assessment of success in their accomplishments
annual goals and assessment of success in their accomplishments
studies of alumni and former students;
studies regarding effectiveness of programs and their graduates;
studies that indicate degree of success in placing graduates;
pre- and post-test comparisons of student knowledge, skills, and abilities; and
surveys of satisfaction - students, alumni, and employees.
Required Exhibits: Institutional short term, strategic, or long term plans, including system master plans.
Suggested Materials: Planning studies, enrollments for the past five years, enrollment projections, program and personnel needs analyses, fund development plans, and other institutional research results.
Version 3, Draft 2
Institution Mission and Goals, Planning and EffectivenessIntroduction
1.A Mission and Goals
Analysis and Appraisal
1.A.1 The institution’s mission and goals derive from, or are widely understood by, the campus community, are adopted by the governing board, and are periodically reexamined. The mission, goals and values are well understood by the members of the President’s Staff. And the mission and values are widely understood by the college community in part because they were involved it the forming of the values statements.
However, the goals and objectives are less well understood by many in the wider College community with some exceptions: staff and faculty who request professional development funds, equipment or staff positions or staff and faculty who serve on decision-making committees such as the Equipment Budget Committee and College Council. These members of the college community build their rationale or make their decisions based upon the strategic plan. (We may need some concrete data from the surveys to make this statement)
1.A.2 The mission, as adopted by the governing board, appears in appropriate institutional publications, including the catalog. The mission, goals and objectives are published in the college catalog (09-10 College Catalog , p2), and on the College website, the mission and values are published on the “Welcome to South Puget Sound” page and the entire Strategic Plan is published on the Administration page.
1.A.4 Goals are determined consistent with the institution’s mission and its resources - human, physical, and financial. Goals are consistent with the college's mission and its human, physical, and financial resources. College's goals -- student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability -- are consistent with its mission of "engaging our community in learning . . . for life" focusing on college values:
1. pursues excellence
2. operates in an atmosphere of accountability and respect
3. accepts responsibilities to the communities we serve
4. fosters inclusiveness at our campuses
5. provides student-centered education
The College's goals--to support student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability--are consistent with its resources.
· Human Resources:
o Hiring (see Hiring Process and Screening Committee Handbook) and staffing
o Requests professional development
o Fulltime faculty prioritization process and scoring rubrics tied to and consistent with objectives, strategic plan and Strategic Enrollment Management plan (see Resource Room).
· Physical Resources:
o Grounds, buildings, building utilization and levels of maintenance (see Master Plan).
o Priority scheduling policy of classes first while other requests delayed until after 10th class day.
· Financial Resources: and resource allocation processes:
o Budget development
o Equipment prioritization process is tied to and consistent with goals and tied to mission/goals/strategies, and the results of criteria-based scores are recorded.
o Budget reduction process through the College Council was transparent and c
Overall the strategies outlined in Strategic Plan connect the mission/goals to the resources and the processes of resource allocation.
1.A.5 The institution’s mission and goals give direction to all its educational activities, to its admission policies, selection of faculty, allocation of resources, and to planning.
The interviews with President Pumphrey and all of the VP's made clear that the mission and goals (objectives/strategies) are giving direction to the senior administration. All spoke of the annual strategic priorities as drivers of their work and regular meetings as feedback sessions, and they spoke of tying the work of their service or program areas to these priorities.
· VP for Instruction uses the mission and goals to drive the work of the academic deans and directors and the various committees and councils that she chairs;
· The VP for Students uses the Strategic Plan to guide the work of Student Services and the annual strategic priorities to allocate resources;
· The VP for Administration uses it to manage the financial resources of the College and to direct the work of the administrative services.
There is ample evidence that the annual strategic priorities for 2008-2009 (below) provided direction for decision-making committees and councils.
What is less certain is the extent to which knowledge of these priorities filters down the hierarchy. (Here we need to provide information that suggests the lack of “widely understood” knowledge)
1.A.6 Public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution.
The College’s public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. Classified staff, faculty and administrators are involved in a wide range of charitable and community and service organizations including: Rotary club memberships, Thurston Chamber of Commerce member, OLT Visitor & Convention Bureau member, United Way, and many others. The college also provides service to the community by providing co-sponsored activities and services.
· Activities: Expanding your Horizons, Latino Youth Summit, parenting lecture series, art gallery space, Thurston County Food Bank Drive Host, Olympia World Affairs Council Banquet Host, Combined Fund Drive, and Annual Christmas Drive for Toys for needy children.
· Services: Small Business Council, Dental Clinic, Olympia Chamber Orchestra co-sponsor member
1.A.7 The institution reviews with the Commission, contemplated changes that would alter its mission, autonomy, ownership or locus of control, or its intention to offer a degree at a higher level than is included in its present accreditation, or other changes in accordance with Policy A-2 //Substantive Change//
During the 2008-2009 academic year the College as represented by Vice President for Instruction sought approval from the Commission on two occasions: to offer an Associate in Arts degree entirely online and to rename the professional/technical degrees Associate of Applied Science (AAS or AAS-T). (link needed?)
Strengths
Strengths:
· Informed sense of direction.
Upper management shares a clear vision of the Mission and Goals of the college. They work together well as a team and use this vision to direct the work of those in their different areas of the College.
· Data is used to drive decisions.
The Office of Institutional Research collects and provides data that is examined by decision-makers and used to give direction to activities and to allocate resources.
· Staff, faculty and administrators understand and are committed to the mission of community colleges and this College.
A large and diverse group participated in revising the Strategic plan and in shaping the Mission and Values.
Challenges
· Goals, Objectives and Strategies are not well understood by staff and faculty.
Staff, faculty and community members were involved in creating the revised Mission and Values but were less involved in developing the Goals, Objectives and Strategies and the process for developing these was less transparent. How the Values inform the Goals, Objectives and Strategies is not clear. The administration has a solid understanding of how these drive decisions and communicates this connection; however, the language of Goals, Objectives and Strategies isn’t widely recognized when communicated to the campus and community at large. A general vision of the Goals and Values is not adequate to unify the College in its efforts.
· Strategic Priorities are not well understood by staff and faculty.
The College community lacks information about the specific Strategic Priorities that are set each year by President’s Staff and therefore do not recognize reports of progress when they are communicated. Staff and faculty involved in planning and implementing at the program/service level may not always understand, as directors and deans do, how their work is tied to these annual Priorities.
· Mission and Goals are not visible on campus.
Many of the hard copies posted on campus are out-of-date and current copies are not readily available to the College Community at large. Though posted on the Administration page on the campus website, this link is buried in layers of links.
Future Direction/Recommendations
· Explicitly and regularly communicate Goals, Objectives and Strategies and progress on each in order to help them become more recognizable to stakeholders.
· Communicate the Annual Strategic Priorities and the progress toward them to the campus community.
· Increase the visibility of the Strategic Plan on and off campus.
1.B Planning and Effectiveness
Analysis and Appraisal
The institution engages in ongoing planning to achieve its mission and goals. It also evaluates how well, and in what ways, it is accomplishing its mission and goals and uses the results for broad based, continuous planning and evaluation. Through its planning process, the institution asks questions, seeks answers, analyzes itself, and revises its goals, policies, procedures, and resource allocation.
1.B.1 The institution defines its evaluation and planning processes clearly. It develops and implements procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals. This is true of the evaluations of personnel at the college (student, peer, supervisory). However, the process of evaluating programs and services is under way, and there is current conversation about the evaluation of our College processes.
(here we will use a table with list of evaluation and planning processes, who does it and schedule~ it will include· Online classes –both the technology and the instruction—are in the queue for a more clearly defined process. ELearning evaluation will be built into all of the online classes.)
The College defines its planning processes clearly. This was true of the previous strategic plan and is under development for the next plan. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan. · It planned its budget reduction, capital improvements, the large equipment prioritization and the fulltime faculty prioritization process clearly. This is also true for the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. The planning process for the business office ??? is it clearly defined?
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help indicate the extent to which the College is meeting its goals. The President’s Staff developed Annual Strategic Priorities to focus the College’s efforts on eight of its identified strategies and increase its accountability. These eight priorities are assigned to the vice presidents for implementation, and the progress toward achievement is reported regularly in staff meetings. Here we should refer to the annual strategic priorities, identify how they were chosen, and how the progress was reported in the staff meetings.
(In progress ~Mary Soltman is working on refining this)
1.B.2 __The institution engages in systematic planning for, and evaluation of, its activities, including teaching, research, and public service consistent with institutional mission and goals.
The College uses the Mission and Goals intentionally in its planning and evaluation of activities. It engages on a fairly regular basis, though this is most true of the Annual Strategic Priorities. The systematic planning and evaluation is evident in most areas of the College in response to problems (example?) The College, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service Review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a three-year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the Strategic Plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community.
Evaluation of the faculty -- adjunct, full-time probationary and tenured -- uses multiple indices and is systematic. Insert adjunct process here. Probationary faculty participate in a rigorous and regimented probationary review process and tenured faculty are required to participate in a five-year review process including evaluation from students, colleagues and other self-evaluation activities. Class scheduling is planned and evaluated (proof?) systematically and the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan regularly reviews student enrollment patterns within the context of the service area’s diverse communities. In addition, the CCSE was facilitated and the results shared with the campus community and used for planning. Graduate & Employer Surveys are regularly conducted to assess the degree to which graduates are meeting the needs of employers. College committees such as Instructional Council and Assessment Research Council systematically plan and evaluate activities. Capital Facilities Master Plan reviews facility requests and design on the goals of student centeredness and effective, efficient, and fiscally accountable operations. IT Strategic Plan is consistent with the mission and goals, but not yet evaluated.
Research is not a priority of the College, but the small research projects in anthropology and psychology were approved as consistent with the mission and goals.
Some public service activities are evaluated based upon goals and mission, but the system or overview of public service may not be systematically planned for or evaluated. Many of the community service activities sponsored by the College (link) seem to be initiated by programs, departments, faculty or staff rather than driven by administrative priorities. (We need to know more about what we do or choose not to do for public service).
1.B.3 The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties. The governance system at SPSCC supports the college’s mission, values, strategic directions and learning outcomes. The stakeholders (Board of Trustees, students, classified staff, faculty and the exempt /administrative staff members) have a role to play in the college’s governance system. (Governance Model link)
The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituent group. More members of the staff are involved in the College’s decision-making processes. In 2008, for the first time, State mandated budgetary reductions were discussed at length by the President of the College, members of the Administration and the College Council. As a result, the college community was asked to present their ideas for cost savings. These ideas were sorted by the Administration, reviewed and prioritized by the Council, and implemented as prioritized. An annual small equipment budgeting process was established in 2007 whereby administrators, classified staff and faculty meet together to evaluate and prioritize campus-wide requests for small equipment from a central pool 2008-2009 Equipment Allocation Process . Another example of this improvement is that of the faculty hiring prioritization committee. Members included the Instructional Vice President, Division Deans and faculty. Rationales for filing positions were presented through proposal packets and a vote of the membership determined which positions were filled.
The College’s values of operating in an atmosphere of accountability and respect, accepting responsibilities to the communities we serve, and fostering inclusiveness, drive the participatory nature of its planning. This is evident in the planning process for the Campus Center , the Enrollment Management Team, the Assessment & Research Councils, the development of the Program Review process, regularly conducted open forums, and strategic planning which includes board members, students and community representatives.
Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committee, operational work groups, contract and ad hoc committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory (http://inside.spscc.ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Accreditation/Resource%20Room/Standard%20Indexes/Standard%206/Governance%20Model%20-%20Final.pdf , http://inside.spscc.ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Accreditation/Resource%20Room/Standard%20Indexes/Standard%206/handbook2009.pdf )
1.B.4
The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
In 2005 there was a shift from a formula-driven budgeting process to a process driven by institutional prioritization (McKinney).The College has been using the results of evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
· This is evident in the 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard Two that outlines how the institution has used the results of _ and _ to increase online offerings and support and to establish the rationale for large equipment purchases and fulltime faculty hiring prioritization.
· The single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies.
· Student Services uses the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop its action plans and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid. The 2008 CCSSE indicated that those services had improved and inspired Student Services to continue that level of service.
· College-wide program/service review will inform prioritization of hiring and equipment
· (We need to include here the evaluation of college/classroom climate incidences and progress toward respect for diversity )
· Prior 2009-2010 these efforts had been systematic in that they are planned and scheduled, but are not College- wide. To achieve the system-wide use of the evaluation data and planning activities, the College has instituted and implemented a Program and Service Review process that will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus, and the results will be used to influence allocation and improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified. Then a schedule based on a three-year review cycle was developed. This process systematizes and complements the existing evaluation and processes identified above. (Note: LS is still working on this)
1. B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement. The Annual Strategic Priorities/Initiatives which are based on the Strategic Plan use data from the community survey, the CCSSE report, the Fact Book results, the Diversity Plan, (future) Program Review documents, This process is done each _ by a group consisting of .These priorities are then distributed by _ to .
In 2008 the college brought in George Copa to lead a cross campus committee through an evaluation and planning process for an integrated Student Services, E-Learning, and Library building. This process used a technique that built a shared vision for the building upon the shared values of the staff, community and students. This process will be used to help the institution create ownership of the results and give a more comprehensive plan for others to implement.
(Note: NR is working on this).
1.B.6 The institution provides the necessary resources for effective evaluation and planning processes. The College has been very fiscally supportive of all institutional research efforts. Since Feb. 2007 the College’s funding for Institutional Research has supported one fulltime position and supplies, travel, etc. However, those resources were not adequate to support the research necessary for overall institutional evaluation. To provide more information for evaluation and planning, the College has allocated additional funds to purchase survey instruments, materials and software (CCSSE, Graduate Survey, etc.). In addition, the College has provided funds for the professional development of the institutional researcher and hired support staff. (add references to information packets Darby provides to programs and departments)
The college engages the community in college wide strategic planning, developing a Strategic Plan and subsequent goals and objectives. The Strategic Plan seeds divisional level planning and college plans to address budget, facilities, equipment, enrollment, technology, curriculum, and research. (add reference to plan documents such as Facilities Master Plan, Equipment process, curriculum and the like.) The College Council, President’s Staff, and Board of Trustees assess the planning process and plans ensuring consistency with the college mission and goals. (Reference to College Council minutes?)
Annual program/department service/program reviews provide opportunity for in-depth evaluation every few years and support for accreditation cycle reviews. Each department/program reviews its coincidence with college goals, demands, support services, budget, and outcomes. (see program/service review templates). Changes are made each year to help ensure continuous improvement.
The accreditation self-study process provides opportunities to assess program/department effectiveness of the evaluation, planning, budgeting processes connected to the college Strategic Plan. The self-study focuses on an in-depth appraisal of all department/programs. Recommendations from previous accreditation studies are incorporated into the college planning process modifying or supporting institution-level goals and objectives.
The College has been very fiscally supportive of all institutional research efforts. Since Feb. 2007 the College’s funding for Institutional Research has supported one fulltime position and supplies, travel, etc. However, those resources were not adequate to support the research necessary for overall institutional evaluation. To provide more information for evaluation and planning, the College has allocated additional funds to purchase survey instruments, materials and software (CCSSE, Graduate Survey, etc.). In addition, the College has provided funds for the professional development of the institutional researcher and hired support staff.
The extra support staff has been invaluable for the development of the institutional research support that is given to the instructional programs. For example, a standardized data report was created in Spring of 2009 for each program called an Instructional Program Institutional Research (IPIR) Report. This report contains individualized enrollment, completions, retention, transfer and employment information, and course pattern summaries. The final page of this report is a graphical representation of the most recent data gathered for current assessment plans. The data in this report has helped individual programs understand the details of their program and make plans for new assessment activities, and it will also be used in program review. The development of this report was complex and time consuming and could not have been accomplished without the newly hired support staff. (from Darby)
1.B.7 The institution’s research is integrated with and supportive of institutional evaluation and planning.
The institution’s research is integrated with and supportive of institutional evaluation and planning.
Institutional research is entirely integrated with evaluation and planning. IR’s purpose is to look for the answers to the questions “how are we doing” and “how could we be doing things better.” IR is the primary data source for information about the ongoing operation of the college, and that data has been used in multiple ways for evaluation and planning. The following chart offers examples.
1.B.8 The institution systematically reviews its institutional research efforts, IR evaluation processes, and its planning activities to document their effectiveness. The data and reports from Institutional Research are reviewed regularly as a result of presentations to the College’s many stakeholders: Master Planning Group, Strategic Enrollment Management Core Oversight Group, Board of Trustees, Presidents Staff, Assessment, Research Council, and Instructional Programs. Furthermore, the personnel in the office undergo regular exempt and classified staff evaluations using the standard forms.
The College-wide Program/Service Area Review documents the effectiveness of IR’s research, evaluation and planning.
Determine “health” of the college
Inform the Board of Trustees, College community and the report to the public
Customer satisfaction
Plan parking on Mottman campus
Measure progress annually
Track progress on annual strategic priorities
1.B.9 The institution uses information from its planning and evaluation processes to communicate evidence of institutional effectiveness to its public.
The College community receives evidence of institutional effectiveness in an annual State of the College address and through e-mailed communiqués and all-staff meetings. These communications include information from the College’s planning and evaluation processes and discuss results of any surveys and studies conducted. However, as discussed earlier, the information may not be recognized as evidence of institutional progress. College Council’s new formation provides college-wide oversight, planning and communication of information to the College community. The Wave monthly college newsletter and The Sounds student
newspaper may also offer information about college planning and evaluation activities. The Fact Book is also available to the college community and updated annually.
The general public and surrounding community is only generally aware of the College – its mission, goals and opportunities for the communities. Surveys show that the public views the College favorable, but there are opportunities for further education as to its mission and values. Soundings is published and sent to Foundation board members, retired faculty and staff, foundation donors in the last five years and in-kind donors in the last five years, “friends” of the foundation in last five years (at a particular donor level), legislators, lifetime and endowed scholarship donors, the governor, CTC presidents and communication directors, state board staff, current and former trustees, local diversity leasers, local officials, politicians, schools and school counselors, chamber leaders, K-12 superintendents in district, higher education leaders, advisory committee members, sister college presidents, state agency heads, college staff and faculty. The 2008 mailing was 3, 250 recipients. The Spring 2009 edition contained a ten-year longitudinal report. The current edition of Soundings is also electronically available on the college website along with links to President’s messages, College Council minutes, and the budget calendar.
Strengths
· The College has or is developing procedures to evaluate achievement of institutional goals at the program/service level.
The college-wide ability rubrics, the department/program assessment plans, the program review are all examples of current tools. These pieces are clearly visible and do provide information about the College's achievement of its goal.
· The President’s Staff is priority driven.
In place are strong administrative teams at the President’s Staff and Division Dean level who make decisions based on the College priorities (does this feel like a strength already noted in I.A?)
· Institutional research is used to evaluate and to inform planning.
The Office of Institutional research gathers and provides data to give direction to planning and resource allocation.
· Increased involvement of College staff in planning.
Committees and councils dedicated to planning and recommending action at the college level are representative of a variety of departments and programs. Processes and recommendations made by such committees are shared campus-wide.
Challenges
· We do not have a visible comprehensive plan to evaluate the College's achievement of Mission and Goals.
The mission seems to broad to evaluate and the number of objectives and strategies too many to consistently evaluate.
· Progress reports of core and strategic indicators that go to the Board are not shared with the community.
Top-tier administrators are well informed but staff, faculty and community members are not given these reports.
· Communication internally and externally is not systematic or always effective.
In addition to Board and President’s Staff reports not always readily available, communication with the community is funneled through College Relations and intentionally not done by staff and faculty in other areas of the College.
Future Direction/Recommendations
· Revise the College Mission, Goals, & Strategies
· Develop a comprehensive plan to evaluate and communicate the College’s achievement of goals to both internal and external communities.
Improve external communications to the community.
Version 2, Draft 2 Standard One - Institution Mission and Goals, Planning and Effectiveness
Introduction
1.A.1 The institution’s mission and goals derive from, or are widely understood by, the campus community, are adopted by the governing board, and are periodically reexamined.
The mission, goals and values are well understood by the members of the President’s Staff. And the mission and values are widely understood by the college community in part because they were involved it the forming of the values statements.
However, the goals and objectives are less well understood by many in the wider College community with some exceptions:
staff and faculty who request professional development funds, equipment or staff positions or staff and faculty who serve on decision-making committees such as the Equipment Budget Committee and College Council. These members of the college community build their rationale or make their decisions based upon the strategic plan. (We may need some concrete data from the surveys to make this statement)
1.A.2 The mission, as adopted by the governing board, appears in appropriate institutional publications, including the catalog.
The mission, goals and objectives are published in the college catalog (09-10 College Catalog , p2), and on the College website, the mission and values are published on the “Welcome to South Puget Sound” page and the entire Strategic Plan is published on the Administration page.
1.A.3 Progress in accomplishing the institution’s mission and goals is documented and made public.
Progress toward accomplishing the College’s mission and goals is documented through reports to the Board of Trustees (as stated in the Spring 2009 Soundings) and made public piecemeal to the campus community through all staff meetings, to the campus community and the community-at-large in the fall annual “State of the College” report, online on the About page, and through Soundings that is online and also distributed in hard copy to those who donate to the college and.(1) Other specific reports—such as the report on the College’s recycling and composting efforts—are distributed through campus e-mails and reports in the campus newsletter The Wave.
1.A.4 Goals are determined consistent with the institution’s mission and its resources - human, physical, and financial.
Goals are consistent with the college's mission and its human, physical, and financial resources. College's goals -- student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability -- are consistent with its mission of "engaging our community in learning . . . for life" focusing on college values:
1. pursues excellence
2. operates in an atmosphere of accountability and respect
3. accepts responsibilities to the communities we serve
4. fosters inclusiveness at our campuses
5. provides student-centered education
The College's goals--to support student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability--are consistent with its resources.
· Human Resources:
o Hiring (see Hiring Process and Screening Committee Handbook) and staffing
o Requests professional development
o Fulltime faculty prioritization process and scoring rubrics tied to and consistent with objectives, strategic plan and Strategic Enrollment Management plan (see Resource Room).
· Physical Resources:
o Grounds, buildings, building utilization and levels of maintenance (see Master Plan).
o Priority scheduling policy of classes first while other requests delayed until after 10th class day.
· Financial Resources: and resource allocation processes:
o Budget development
o Equipment prioritization process is tied to and consistent with goals and tied to mission/goals/strategies, and the results of criteria-based scores are recorded.
o Budget reduction process through the College Council was transparent and consistent with college goals. (see College Council Minutes 12/08 and 1/09) .
Overall the strategies outlined in Strategic Plan connect the mission/goals to the resources and the processes of resource allocation.
1.A.5 The institution’s mission and goals give direction to all its educational activities, to its admission policies, selection of faculty, allocation of resources, and to planning.
The interviews with President Pumphrey and all of the VP's made clear that the mission and goals (objectives/strategies) are giving direction to the senior administration. All spoke of the annual strategic priorities as drivers of their work and regular meetings as feedback sessions, and they spoke of tying the work of their service or program areas to these priorities.
· VP for Instruction uses the mission and goals to drive the work of the academic deans and directors and the various committees and councils that she chairs;
· The VP for Students uses the Strategic Plan to guide the work of Student Services and the annual strategic priorities to allocate resources;
· The VP for Administration uses it to manage the financial resources of the College and to direct the work of the administrative services.
There is ample evidence that the annual strategic priorities for 2008-2009 (below) provided direction for decision-making committees and councils.
1.A.6 Public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution.
The College’s public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. Classified staff, faculty and administrators are involved in a wide range of charitable and community and service organizations including: Rotary club memberships, Thurston Chamber of Commerce member, OLT Visitor & Convention Bureau member, United Way, and many others. The college also provides service to the community by providing co-sponsored activities and services.
· Activities: Expanding your Horizons, Latino Youth Summit, parenting lecture series, art gallery space, Thurston County Food Bank Drive Host, Olympia World Affairs Council Banquet Host, Combined Fund Drive, and Annual Christmas Drive for Toys for needy children.
· Services: Small Business Council, Dental Clinic, Olympia Chamber Orchestra co-sponsor member
ANALYSIS
Strengths:
· Informed sense of direction.
Upper management shares a clear vision of the Mission and Goals of the college. They work together well as a team and use this vision to direct the work of those in their different areas of the College.
· Data is used to drive decisions.
The Office of Institutional Research collects and provides data that is examined by decision-makers and used to give direction to activities and to allocate resources.
· Staff, faculty and administrators understand and are committed to the mission of community colleges and this College.
A large and diverse group participated in revising the Strategic plan and in shaping the Mission and Values.
Weaknesses:
· Goals, Objectives and Strategies are not well understood by staff and faculty.
Staff, faculty and community members were involved in creating the revised Mission and Values but were less involved in developing the Goals, Objectives and Strategies and the process for developing these was less transparent. How the Values inform the Goals, Objectives and Strategies is not clear. The administration has a solid understanding of how these drive decisions and communicates this connection; however, the language of Goals, Objectives and Strategies isn’t widely recognized when communicated to the campus and community at large. A general vision of the Goals and Values is not adequate to unify the College in its efforts.
· Strategic Priorities are not well understood by staff and faculty.
The College community lacks information about the specific Strategic Priorities that are set each year by President’s Staff and therefore do not recognize reports of progress when they are communicated. Staff and faculty involved in planning and implementing at the program/service level may not always understand, as directors and deans do, how their work is tied to these annual Priorities.
· Mission and Goals are not visible on campus.
Many of the hard copies posted on campus are out-of-date and current copies are not readily available to the College Community at large. Though posted on the Administration page on the campus website, this link is buried in layers of links.
Recommendations:
· Explicitly and regularly communicate Goals, Objectives and Strategies and progress on each in order to help them become more recognizable to stakeholders.
· Communicate the Annual Strategic Priorities and the progress toward them to the campus community.
· Increase the visibility of the Strategic Plan on and off campus.
1.B - Planning and Effectiveness
The institution engages in ongoing planning to achieve its mission and goals. It also evaluates how well, and in what ways, it is accomplishing its mission and goals and uses the results for broad based, continuous planning and evaluation. Through its planning process, the institution asks questions, seeks answers, analyzes itself, and revises its goals, policies, procedures, and resource allocation.
1.B.1 The institution defines its evaluation and planning processes clearly. It develops and implements procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals. This is true of the evaluations of personnel at the college (student, peer, supervisory). However, the process of evaluating programs and services is under way, and there is current conversation about the evaluation of our College processes.
(here we will use a table with list of evaluation and planning processes, who does it and schedule~ it will include· Online classes –both the technology and the instruction—are in the queue for a more clearly defined process. ELearning evaluation will be built into all of the online classes.)
The College defines its planning processes clearly. This was true of the previous strategic plan and is under development for the next plan. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan. · It planned its budget reduction, capital improvements, the large equipment prioritization and the fulltime faculty prioritization process clearly. This is also true for the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. The planning process for the business office ??? is it clearly defined?
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help indicate the extent to which the College is meeting its goals.
The President’s Staff developed Annual Strategic Priorities to focus the College’s efforts on eight of its identified strategies and increase its accountability. These eight priorities are assigned to the vice presidents for implementation, and the progress toward achievement is reported regularly in staff meetings. Here we should refer to the annual strategic priorities, identify how they were chosen, and how the progress was reported in the staff meetings.
(In progress ~Mary Soltman is working on refining this)
1.B.2 The institution engages in systematic planning for, and evaluation of, its activities, including teaching, research, and public service consistent with institutional mission and goals.
The College uses the mission (as it is) and goals intentionally in its planning and evaluation of activities. It engages on a fairly regular basis, though this is most true of the Annual Strategic Priorities. The systematic planning and evaluation is evident in most areas of the College in response to problems. The program review is an effort to systematize and make inclusive this process.
The College, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service Review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process will be conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a 3 year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the strategic plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community.
Teaching: Class scheduling is planned and evaluated systematically based upon its mission and goals.
Evaluation of the faculty—adjunct & fulltime—using multiple indices.
Strategic Enrollment Management Plan regularly reviews student enrollment patterns within the context of the service area’s diverse communities.
CCSE survey of student engagements fits here.
Graduate & Employer Surveys
Instructional Council and ARC systematically plan and evaluate activities.
Capital Facilities Master Plan reviews facility requests and design on the goals of student centeredness and effective, efficient, and fiscally accountable operations.
IT Strategic Plan is consistent with the mission and goals, but not yet evaluated.
Nascent Program Review is systematic and used for planning and evaluation of all area of the College.
Research: While not a priority of the College, the small research projects in anthropology and psychology were approved as consistent with the mission and goals (link).
Public Service: Some activities are evaluated based upon goals and mission, but the system or overview of public service may not be systematically planned for or evaluated. (We need to know more about what we do or choose not to do for public service).
Operations:
· Strategic planning accompanies operational and budget planning at the executive, mid-management and unit level where the levels mutually inform and support one another.
· To better align planning and budgeting, the college’s two year planning cycle parallels the legislative biennial budgeting cycle.
· Institutional priorities provide direction to operational planning. Figure xx illustrates the planning process and input from various constituents. (How/why did we get to the current planning process?) (example of Operational/Budget development process and/or plans?)
· Evidence that demonstrates the planning, analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes such as
o College mission
o College goals
· Analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes/planning
o studies of alumni and former students
o studies regarding effectiveness of programs and their graduates
o studies that indicate degree of success in placing graduates
o pre- and post-test comparisons of student knowledge, skills, and abilities surveys of satisfaction - students, alumni, and employees
1.B.3 The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties. The governance system at SPSCC supports the college’s mission, values, strategic directions and learning outcomes. The stakeholders (Board of Trustees, students, classified staff, faculty and the exempt /administrative staff members) have a role to play in the college’s governance system. (Governance Model link)
“The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.” (Coats) The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituent group.
More members of the staff are involved in the College’s decision-making processes. In 2008, for the first time, State mandated budgetary reductions were discussed at length by the President of the College, members of the Administration and the College Council. As a result, the college community was asked to present their ideas for cost savings. These ideas were sorted by the Administration, reviewed and prioritized by the Council, and implemented as prioritized. An annual small equipment budgeting process was established in 2007 whereby administrators, classified staff and faculty meet together to evaluate and prioritize campus-wide requests for small equipment from a central pool 2008-2009 Equipment Allocation Process . Another example of this improvement is that of the faculty hiring prioritization committee. Members included the Instructional Vice President, Division Deans and faculty. Rationales for filing positions were presented through proposal packets and a vote of the membership determined which positions were filled.
The College’s values of operating in an atmosphere of accountability and respect, accepting responsibilities to the communities we serve, and fostering inclusiveness, drive the participatory nature of its planning. This is evident in the planning process for the Campus Center , the Enrollment Management Team, the Assessment & Research Councils, the development of the Program Review process, regularly conducted open forums, and strategic planning which includes board members, students and community representatives.
Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committee, operational work groups, contract and ad hoc committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory (Governance Model here, link).
1.B.4
The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
In 2005 there was a shift from a formula-driven budgeting process to a process driven by institutional prioritization (McKinney).The College has been using the results of evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
· This is evident in the 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard Two that outlines how the institution has used the results of _ and _ to increase online offerings and support and to establish the rationale for large equipment purchases and fulltime faculty hiring prioritization.
· The single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies.
· Student Services uses the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop its action plans and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid. The 2008 CCSSE indicated that those services had improved and inspired Student Services to continue that level of service.
· College-wide program/service review will inform prioritization of hiring and equipment
· (We need to include here the evaluation of college/classroom climate incidences and progress toward respect for diversity )
· Prior 2009-2010 these efforts had been systematic in that they are planned and scheduled, but are not College- wide. To achieve the system-wide use of the evaluation data and planning activities, the College has instituted and implemented a Program and Service Review process that will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus, and the results will be used to influence allocation and improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified. Then a schedule based on a three-year review cycle was developed. This process systematizes and complements the existing evaluation and processes identified above.
(Note: LS is still working on this)
1. B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement.
The Annual Strategic Priorities/Initiatives which are based on the Strategic Plan use data from the community survey, the CCSSE report, the Fact Book results, the Diversity Plan, (future) Program Review documents, This process is done each _ by a group consisting of .These priorities are then distributed by _ to. Strengths:
· The College has or is developing procedures to evaluate achievement of institutional goals at the program/service level.
The college-wide ability rubrics, the department/program assessment plans, the program review are all examples of current tools. These pieces are clearly visible and do provide information about the College's achievement of its goal.
· The President’s Staff is priority driven.
In place are strong administrative teams at the President’s Staff and Division Dean level who make decisions based on the College priorities (does this feel like a strength already noted in I.A?)
· Institutional research is used to evaluate and to inform planning.
The Office of Institutional research gathers and provides data to give direction to planning and resource allocation.
· Increased involvement of College staff in planning.
Committees and councils dedicated to planning and recommending action at the college level are representative of a variety of departments and programs. Processes and recommendations made by such committees are shared campus-wide.
Weaknesses:
· We do not have a visible comprehensive plan to evaluate the College's achievement of Mission and Goals.
The mission seems to broad to evaluate and the number of objectives and strategies too many to consistently evaluate.
· Progress reports of core and strategic indicators that go to the Board are not shared with the community.
Top-tier administrators are well informed but staff, faculty and community members are not given these reports.
· Communication internally and externally is not systematic or always effective.
In addition to Board and President’s Staff reports not always readily available, communication with the community is funneled through College Relations and intentionally not done by staff and faculty in other areas of the College.
Recommendations:
· Revise the College Mission, Goals, & Strategies
· Develop a comprehensive plan to evaluate and communicate the College’s achievement of goals to both internal and external communities.
Improve external communications to the community.
ANALYSIS
Strengths:
· Informed sense of direction.
Upper management shares a clear vision of the Mission and Goals of the college. They work together well as a team and use this vision to direct the work of those in their different areas of the College.
· Data is used to drive decisions.
The Office of Institutional Research collects and provides data that is examined by decision-makers and used to give direction to activities and to allocate resources.
· Staff, faculty and administrators understand and are committed to the mission of community colleges and this College.
A large and diverse group participated in revising the Strategic plan and in shaping the Mission and Values.
Weaknesses:
· Goals, Objectives and Strategies are not well understood by staff and faculty.
Staff, faculty and community members were involved in creating the revised Mission and Values but were less involved in developing the Goals, Objectives and Strategies and the process for developing these was less transparent. How the Values inform the Goals, Objectives and Strategies is not clear. The administration has a solid understanding of how these drive decisions and communicates this connection; however, the language of Goals, Objectives and Strategies isn’t widely recognized when communicated to the campus and community at large. A general vision of the Goals and Values is not adequate to unify the College in its efforts.
· Strategic Priorities are not well understood by staff and faculty.
The College community lacks information about the specific Strategic Priorities that are set each year by President’s Staff and therefore do not recognize reports of progress when they are communicated. Staff and faculty involved in planning and implementing at the program/service level may not always understand, as directors and deans do, how their work is tied to these annual Priorities.
· Mission and Goals are not visible on campus.
Many of the hard copies posted on campus are out-of-date and current copies are not readily available to the College Community at large. Though posted on the Administration page on the campus website, this link is buried in layers of links.
Recommendations:
· Explicitly and regularly communicate Goals, Objectives and Strategies and progress on each in order to help them become more recognizable to stakeholders.
· Communicate the Annual Strategic Priorities and the progress toward them to the campus community.
· Increase the visibility of the Strategic Plan on and off campus.
1.B - Planning and Effectiveness
The institution engages in ongoing planning to achieve its mission and goals. It also evaluates how well, and in what ways, it is accomplishing its mission and goals and uses the results for broad-based, continuous planning and evaluation. Through its planning process, the institution asks questions, seeks answers, analyzes itself, and revises its goals, policies, procedures, and resource allocation.
1.B.1 The institution defines its evaluation and planning processes clearly. This is true of the evaluations of personnel at the college. (student, peer, evaluations).
However, the process of evaluating programs and services is under way, and there is current conversation about the evaluation of our College processes.
· Online classes –both the technology and the instruction—are in the queue for a more clearly defined process. ELearning evaluation will be built into all of the online classes .
The College defines its planning processes clearly.
· This was true of the previous strategic plan and is under development for the next plan. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan.
· It planned it budget reduction, capital improvements, the large equipment prioritization and the fulltime faculty prioritization process clearly. This is also true for the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. The planning process for the business office ??? is it clearly defined?
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help indicate the extent to which the College is meeting its goals.
The President’s Staff developed Annual Strategic Priorities to focus the College’s efforts on eight of its identified strategies and increase its accountability. These eight priorities are assigned to the vice presidents for implementation, and the progress toward achievement is reported regularly in staff meetings. Here we should refer to the annual strategic priorities, identify how they were chosen, and how the progress was reported in the staff meetings.
1.B.2 1The College uses the Mission and Goals intentionally in its planning and evaluation of activities. It engages on a fairly regular basis, though this is most true of the Annual Strategic Priorities. The systematic planning and evaluation is evident in most areas of the College in response to problems (example?) The College, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service Review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a three-year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the Strategic Plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community.
Evaluation of the faculty -- adjunct, full-time probationary and tenured -- uses multiple indices and is systematic. Insert adjunct process here. Probationary faculty participate in a rigorous and regimented probationary review process and tenured faculty are required to participate in a five-year review process including evaluation from students, colleagues and other self-evaluation activities. Class scheduling is planned and evaluated (proof?) systematically and the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan regularly reviews student enrollment patterns within the context of the service area’s diverse communities. In addition, the CCSE was facilitated and the results shared with the campus community and used for planning. Graduate & Employer Surveys are regularly conducted to assess the degree to which graduates are meeting the needs of employers. College committees such as Instructional Council and Assessment Research Council systematically plan and evaluate activities. Capital Facilities Master Plan reviews facility requests and design on the goals of student centeredness and effective, efficient, and fiscally accountable operations. IT Strategic Plan is consistent with the mission and goals, but not yet evaluated.
Research is not a priority of the College, but the small research projects in anthropology and psychology were approved as consistent with the mission and goals.
Some public service activities are evaluated based upon goals and mission, but the system or overview of public service may not be systematically planned for or evaluated. Many of the community service activities sponsored by the College seem to be initiated by programs, departments, faculty or staff rather than driven by administrative priorities.
1.B.3 The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties.
The College’s values of operating in an atmosphere of accountability and respect, accepting responsibilities to the communities we serve, and fostering inclusiveness drive the participatory nature of its planning. The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. “The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information” (Coats). Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituents.
This is not the only example of the participatory nature of the college planning process as more and more members of the staff are involved in the College’s decision-making processes. In 2008, for the first time, State mandated budgetary reductions were discussed at length by the President of the College, members of the Administration and the College Council . As a result, the college community was asked to present their ideas for cost savings. These ideas were sorted by the Administration, reviewed and prioritized by the Council, and implemented as prioritized. An annual small equipment budgeting process was established in 2007 whereby administrators, classified staff and faculty meet together to evaluate and prioritize campus-wide requests for small equipment from a central pool. Another example of this improvement is that of the faculty hiring prioritization committee. Members included the Instructional Vice President, Division Deans and faculty. Rationales for filing positions were presented through proposal packets and a vote of the membership determined which positions were filled. (link here)This is also evident in the planning process for the Campus Center, the Enrollment Management Team, the Assessment & Research Councils, the development of the Program Review process, regularly conducted open forums, and strategic planning which includes board members, students and community representatives.
Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory:
1.B.4
The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
Historical info- shift 4 years ago from a formula-driven budgeting process to a process driven by institutional prioritization.
The College has been using the results of evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
· This is evident in the 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard Two that outlines how the institution has used the results of _ and _ to increase online offerings and support and to establish the rationale for large equipment purchases and fulltime faculty hiring prioritization.
· The single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies.
· Student Services uses the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop its action plans and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid. The 2008 CCSSE indicated that those services had improved and inspired Student Services to continue that level of service.
· College-wide program/service review will inform prioritization of hiring and equipment
· What about the evaluation of college/classroom climate incidences and progress toward respect for diversity
Prior 2009-2010 these efforts had been systematic in that they are planned and scheduled, but are not College wide. To achieve the system-wide use of the evaluation data and planning activities, the College has instituted and implemented a Program and Service Review Summer 2009, evaluated and modified. Then a schedule based on a three-year review cycle was developed. This process systematizes and complements the existing evaluation and processes identified above.
1. B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement.
The Annual Strategic Priorities/Initiatives which are based on the Strategic Plan use data from the community survey, the CCSSE report, the Fact Book results, the Diversity Plan, (future) Program Review documents, This process is done each _ by a group consisting of . These priorities are then distributed by _ to .
In 2008 the college brought in George Copa to lead a cross campus committee through the an evaluation and planning process for an integrated Student Services, E-Learning, and Library building. This process used a technique that built a shared vision for the building upon the shared values of the staff, community and students. This process will be used to help the institution create ownership of the results and give a more comprehensive plan for others to implement.
1.B.6 The institution provides the necessary resources for effective evaluation and planning processes.
The College has been very fiscally supportive of all institutional research efforts. Since Feb. 2007 the College’s funding for Institutional Research has supported one fulltime position and supplies, travel, etc. However, those resources were not adequate to support the research necessary for overall institutional evaluation. To provide more information for evaluation and planning, the College has allocated additional funds to purchase survey instruments, materials and software (CCSSE, Graduate Survey, etc.). In addition, the College has provided funds for the professional development of the institutional researcher and hired support staff. (add references to information packets Darby provides to programs and departments)
The college engages the community in college wide strategic planning, developing a Strategic Plan and subsequent goals and objectives. The Strategic Plan seeds divisional level planning and college plans to address budget, facilities, equipment, enrollment, technology, curriculum, and research. (add reference to plan documents such as Facilities Master Plan, Equipment process, curriculum and the like.) The College Council, President’s Staff, and Board of Trustees assess the planning process and plans ensuring consistency with the college mission and goals. (reference to College Council minutes?)
Annual program/department service/program reviews provide opportunity for in-depth evaluation every few years and support for accreditation cycle reviews. Each department/program reviews its coincidence with college goals, demands, support services, budget, and outcomes. (see program/service review templates). Changes are made each year to help ensure continuous improvement.
The accreditation self-study process provides opportunities to assess program/department effectiveness of the evaluation, planning, budgeting processes connected to the college Strategic Plan. The self-study focuses on an in-depth appraisal of all department/programs. Recommendations from previous accreditation studies are incorporated into the college planning process modifying or supporting institution-level goals and objectives.
(Julian Pietras is still working on this section)
1.B.7 The institution’s research is integrated with and supportive of institutional evaluation and planning.
Institutional research is entirely integrated with evaluation and planning. IR’s purpose is to look for the answers to the questions “how are we doing” and “how could we be doing things better.”
IR is the primary data source for information about the ongoing operation of the college, and that data has been used in multiple ways for evaluation and planning. The following chart offers examples.
· Determine “health” of the College
· Inform the Board of Trustees, College community and the report to the public
· Customer satisfaction
· Plan parking on Mottman campus
· Measure progress annually
· Track progress on annual strategic priorities
(note: we had a nice grid above here, but have lost it somehow~ Mary designed it & willl get it back)
1.B.8 The institution systematically reviews its institutional research efforts, IR evaluation processes, and its planning activities to document their effectiveness.
The data and reports from Institutional Research are reviewed regularly as a result of presentations to the College’s many stakeholders: Master Planning Group, Strategic Enrollment Management Core Oversight Group, Board of Trustees, Presidents Staff, Assessment and Research Council, Instructional Programs. Furthermore, the personnel in the office undergo regular exempt and classified staff evaluations using the standard forms.
The College-wide Program/Service Area Review documents the effectiveness of IR’s research, evaluation and planning.
1.B.9 The institution uses information from its planning and evaluation processes to communicate evidence of institutional effectiveness to its public.
The College community receives evidence of institutional effectiveness in an annual State of the College address and through e-mailed communiqués and all-staff meetings. These communications include information from the College’s planning and evaluation processes and discuss results of any surveys and studies conducted. However, as discussed earlier, the information may not be recognized as evidence of institutional progress. College Council’s new formation provides college-wide oversight, planning and communication of information to the College community. The Wave monthly college newsletter and The Sounds student newspaper may also offer information about college planning and evaluation activities. The Fact Book is also available to the college community and updated annually.
The general public and surrounding community is only generally aware of the College – its mission, goals and opportunities for the communities. Surveys show that the public views the College favorable, but there are opportunities for further education as to its mission and values. Soundings is published and sent to Foundation board members, retired faculty and staff, foundation donors in the last five years and in-kind donors in the last five years, “friends” of the foundation in last five years (at a particular donor level), legislators, lifetime and endowed scholarship donors, the governor, CTC presidents and communication directors, state board staff, current and former trustees, local diversity leasers, local officials, politicians, schools and school counselors, chamber leaders, K-12 superintendents in district, higher education leaders, advisory committee members, sister college presidents, state agency heads, college staff and faculty. The 2008 mailing was 3, 250 recipients. The Spring 2009 edition contained a ten-year longitudinal report. The current edition of Soundings is also electronically available on the college website along with links to President’s messages, College Council minutes, and the budget calendar.
Analysis
Strengths:
The College has or is developing procedures to evaluate achievement of institutional goals at the program/service level. The college-wide ability rubrics, the department/program assessment plans, the program review are all examples of current tools. These pieces are clearly visible and do provide information about the College's achievement of its goal.
The President’s Staff is priority driven.
In place are strong administrative teams at the level of President’s Staff and Division Deans who make decisions based on the College priorities. (future discussion -does this feel like a strength already noted in I.A?)
Institutional research is used to evaluate and to inform planning.
The Office of Institutional research gathers and provides data to give direction to planning and resource allocation.
Increased involvement of College staff in planning.
Committees and councils dedicated to planning and recommending action at the college level are representative of a variety of departments and programs. Processes and recommendations made by such committees are shared campus-wide.
Weaknesses:
We do not have a visible comprehensive plan to evaluate the College's achievement of Mission and Goals.
The mission seems to broad to evaluate and the number of objectives and strategies too many to consistently evaluate.
Progress reports of core and strategic indicators that go to the Board are not shared with the community.
Top-tier administrators are well informed but staff, faculty and community members are not given these reports.
Communication internally and externally is not systematic or always effective.
In addition to Board and President’s Staff reports not always readily available, communication with the community is funneled through College Relations and intentionally not done by staff and faculty in other areas of the College.
Recommendations:
Revise the College Mission, Goals, & Strategies
Develop a comprehensive plan to evaluate and communicate the College’s achievement of goals to both internal and external communities.
Improve external communications to the community.
Version 1, Draft 2 Institution Mission and Goals, Planning and Effectiveness
Introduction
1.A.1 The 2007-2010 Mission and Strategic Plan emerged from a strategic planning process that included forty representatives from all service and program areas on both Mottman and Hawks Prairie campuses, including students, faculty, staff and the Board of Trustees . It was launched in a two-day retreat held at Hawks Prairie on May 9 and 10, 2007. A smaller group met during the next two months to develop a focused, prioritized plan to direct the future work of the College. In June a fairly complete draft was published for review by the college community. It was revised over the summer and presented again in Fall 2007 to the college community. On Dec. 13 the final draft was presented to the Board for its first reading and adoption.
Then beginning mid-Dec. strategy teams were formed to identify initiatives, attach new or existing measures to objectives, and establish baselines in ensure accountability and efficiency. During this process the team
· Defined the mission
· Considered and prioritized multiple objectives
· Generated the list of shared values that informed the priority of the objectives
· Found consensus evident in the current SP
In another process during strategic planning, the College hosted forums so that the staff and faculty could provide input into the process of identifying the College’s values. This input from the college community was charted in a values grid in April 2007 and then distilled into the value statements found in the current strategic plan.
There were representatives from the community and local institutions present at some stages of the strategic planning process, and the Plan was presented to the community in the Spring 2008 issue of Soundings: The Magazine of South Puget Sound Community Colleg/ (5). The current plan will be reexamined during the 2009-2010 academic year according to the College’s three-year review cycle.
The mission, goals and values are well understood by the members of the President’s Staff. (See 1.A.1) And the mission and values are widely understood by the college community in part because they were involved it the forming of the values statements. However, the goals and objectives are less well understood by many in the wider College community with some exceptions:
o staff and faculty who request professional development funds, equipment or staff positions or
o staff and faculty who serve on decision-making committees such as the Equipment Budget Committee and College Council.
These members of the college community build their rationale or make their decisions based upon the strategic plan.
1.A.2 The mission, goals and objectives are published in the college catalog (09-10 College Catalog , p2), and on the College website, the mission and values are published on the “Welcome to South Puget Sound” page and the entire Strategic Plan is published on the Administration page.
1.A.3 Progress toward accomplishing the College’s mission and goals is documented through reports to the Board of Trustees (as stated in the Spring 2009 Soundings) and made public piecemeal to the campus community through all staff meetings, to the campus community and the community-at-large in the fall annual “State of the College” report, online on the About page, and through Soundings that is online and also distributed in hard copy to those who donate to the college and.(1) Other specific reports—such as the report on the College’s recycling and composting efforts—are distributed through campus e-mails and reports in the campus newsletter The Wave.
1.A.4 Goals are consistent with the college's mission and its human, physical, and financial resources. College's goals -- student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability -- are consistent with its mission of "engaging our community in learning . . . for life" focusing on college values:
The College's goals--to support student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability--are consistent with its resources.
- Equipment prioritization process is tied to and consistent with goals and tied to mission/goals/strategies, and the results of criteria-based scores are recorded.
- Budget reduction process through the College Council was transparent and consistent with college goals. (see College Council Minutes 12/08 and 1/09) .
Overall the strategies outlined in Strategic Plan connect the mission/goals to the resources and the processes of resource allocation.1.A.5 The interviews with President Pumphrey and all of the VP's made clear that the mission and goals (objectives/strategies) are giving direction to the senior administration. All spoke of the annual strategic priorities as drivers of their work and regular meetings as feedback sessions, and they spoke of tying the work of their service or program areas to these priorities.
· VP for Instruction uses the mission and goals to drive the work of the academic deans and directors and the various committees and councils that she chairs;
· The VP for Students uses the Strategic Plan to guide the work of Student Services and the annual strategic priorities to allocate resources;
· The VP for Administration uses it to manage the financial resources of the College and to direct the work of the administrative services.
There is ample evidence that the annual strategic priorities for 2008-2009 (below) provided direction for decision-making committees and councils:
1.A.6 The College’s public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution.
· Participation in community organizations and events: College classified staff, faculty and administrators are involved in a wide range of charitable and service organizations,. (Rotary club memberships, Thurston Chamber of Commerce member, OLT Visitor & Convention Bureau member,
· College-sponsored or college-partnered activities: Expanding your Horizons, Latino Youth Summit, parenting lecture series
· College services to the community: Small Business Council, Dental Clinic, Fresh Measures, Oly chamber Orchestra co-sponsor member, ??
· Charitable contributions: Combined Fund Drive, Annual Christmas Drive for Toys for needy children.
· Art Gallery Space
Thurston County Food bank Food Drive host; Olympia World Affairs Council spring banquet host;
1.A.7 During the 2008-2009 academic year the College as represented by Vice President for Instruction sought approval from the Commission on two occasions: to offer an Associate in Arts degree entirely online and to rename the professional/technical degrees Associate of Applied Science (AAS or AAS-T).Jill is scanning doc to link here10/10/09)
ANALYSIS
Strengths:
· Informed sense of direction.
Upper management shares a clear vision of the Mission and Goals of the college. They work together well as a team and use this vision to direct the work of those in their different areas of the College.
· Data is used to drive decisions.
The Office of Institutional Research collects and provides data that is examined by decision-makers and used to give direction to activities and to allocate resources.
· Staff, faculty and administrators understand and are committed to the mission of community colleges and this College.
A large and diverse group participated in revising the Strategic plan and in shaping the Mission and Values.
Weaknesses :
· Goals, Objectives and Strategies are not well understood by staff and faculty.
Staff, faculty and community members were involved in creating the revised Mission and Values but were less involved in developing the Goals, Objectives and Strategies and the process for developing these was less transparent. How the Values inform the Goals, Objectives and Strategies is not clear. The administration has a solid understanding of how these drive decisions and communicates this connection; however, the language of Goals, Objectives and Strategies isn’t widely recognized when communicated to the campus and community at large. A general vision of the Goals and Values is not adequate to unify the College in its efforts.
· Strategic Priorities are not well understood by staff and faculty.
The College community lacks information about the specific Strategic Priorities that are set each year by President’s Staff and therefore do not recognize reports of progress when they are communicated. Staff and faculty involved in planning and implementing at the program/service level may not always understand, as directors and deans do, how their work is tied to these annual Priorities.
· Mission and Goals are not visible on campus.
Many of the hard copies posted on campus are out-of-date and current copies are not readily available to the College Community at large. Though posted on the Administration page on the campus website, this link is buried in layers of links.
Recommendations :
· Explicitly and regularly communicate Goals, Objectives and Strategies and progress on each in order to help them become more recognizable to stakeholders.
· Communicate the Annual Strategic Priorities and the progress toward them to the campus community.
· Increase the visibility of the Strategic Plan on and off campus.
1.B - Planning and Effectiveness
The institution engages in ongoing planning to achieve its mission and goals. It also evaluates how well, and in what ways, it is accomplishing its mission and goals and uses the results for broadbased, continuous planning and evaluation. Through its planning process, the institution asks questions, seeks answers, analyzes itself, and revises its goals, policies, procedures, and resource allocation.
1.B.1The institution defines its evaluation and planning processes clearly. This is true of the evaluations of personnel at the college. (student, peer, evaluations).
However, the process of evaluating programs and services is under way, and there is current conversation about the evaluation of our College processes.
· Online classes –both the technology and the instruction—are in the queue for a more clearly defined process. ELearning evaluation will be built into all of the online classes .
The College defines its planning processes clearly.
· This was true of the previous strategic plan and is under development for the next plan. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan.
· It planned it budget reduction, capital improvements, the large equipment prioritization and the fulltime faculty prioritization process clearly. This is also true for the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. The planning process for the business office ??? is it clearly defined?
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help indicate the extent to which the College is meeting its goals.
The President’s Staff developed Annual Strategic Priorities to focus the College’s efforts on eight of its identified strategies and increase its accountability. These eight priorities are assigned to the vice presidents for implementation, and the progress toward achievement is reported regularly in staff meetings. Here we should refer to the annual strategic priorities, identify how they were chosen, and how the progress was reported in the staff meetings.
1.B.2 The institution engages in systematic planning for, and evaluation of, its activities, including teaching, research, and public service consistent with institutional mission and goals.
The College uses the Mission and Goals intentionally in its planning and evaluation of activities. It engages on a fairly regular basis, though this is most true of the Annual Strategic Priorities. The systematic planning and evaluation is evident in most areas of the College in response to problems (example?) The College, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service Review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a three-year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the Strategic Plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community.
Evaluation of the faculty -- adjunct, full-time probationary and tenured -- uses multiple indices and is systematic. Insert adjunct process here. Probationary faculty participate in a rigorous and regimented probationary review process and tenured faculty are required to participate in a five-year review process including evaluation from students, colleagues and other self-evaluation activities. Class scheduling is planned and evaluated (proof?) systematically and the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan regularly reviews student enrollment patterns within the context of the service area’s diverse communities. In addition, the CCSE was facilitated and the results shared with the campus community and used for planning. Graduate & Employer Surveys are regularly conducted to assess the degree to which graduates are meeting the needs of employers. College committees such as Instructional Council and Assessment Research Council systematically plan and evaluate activities. Capital Facilities Master Plan reviews facility requests and design on the goals of student centeredness and effective, efficient, and fiscally accountable operations. IT Strategic Plan is consistent with the mission and goals, but not yet evaluated.
Research is not a priority of the College, but the small research projects in anthropology and psychology were approved as consistent with the mission and goals.
Some public service activities are evaluated based upon goals and mission, but the system or overview of public service may not be systematically planned for or evaluated. Many of the community service activities sponsored by the College seem to be initiated by programs, departments, faculty or staff rather than driven by administrative priorities.
1.B.3 The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties. The governance system at SPSCC supports the college’s mission, values, strategic directions and learning outcomes. The stakeholders (Board of Trustees, students, classified staff, faculty and the exempt /administrative staff members) have a role to play in the college’s governance system.
The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituent group. (Coats) “The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.”
Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.”
More members of the staff are involved in the College’s decision-making processes. In 2008, for the first time, State mandated budgetary reductions were discussed at length by the President of the College, members of the Administration and the College Council . As a result, the college community was asked to present their ideas for cost savings. These ideas were sorted by the Administration, reviewed and prioritized by the Council, and implemented as prioritized. An annual small equipment budgeting process was established in 2007 whereby administrators, classified staff and faculty meet together to evaluate and prioritize campus-wide requests for small equipment from a central pool. Another example of this improvement is that of the faculty hiring prioritization committee. Members included the Instructional Vice President, Division Deans and faculty. Rationales for filing positions were presented through proposal packets and a vote of the membership determined which positions were filled. (link)
The College’s values of operating in an atmosphere of accountability and respect, accepting responsibilities to the communities we serve, and fostering inclusiveness drive the participatory nature of its planning. This is evident in the planning process for the Campus Center , the Enrollment Management Team, the Assessment & Research Councils, the development of the Program Review process, regularly conducted open forums, and strategic planning which includes board members, students and community representatives..
Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory:
1.B.4
The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
Historical info- shift 4 years ago from a formula-driven budgeting process to a process driven by institutional prioritization.
The College has been using the results of evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
· This is evident in the 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard Two that outlines how the institution has used the results of _ and _ to increase online offerings and support and to establish the rationale for large equipment purchases and fulltime faculty hiring prioritization.
· The single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies.
· Student Services uses the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop its action plans and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid. The 2008 CCSSE indicated that those services had improved and inspired Student Services to continue that level of service.
· College-wide program/service review will inform prioritization of hiring and equipment
· What about the evaluation of college/classroom climate incidences and progress toward respect for diversity
Prior 2009-2010 these efforts had been systematic in that they are planned and scheduled, but are not College wide. To achieve the system-wide use of the evaluation data and planning activities, the College has instituted and implemented a Program and Service Review Summer 2009, evaluated and modified. Then a schedule based on a three-year review cycle was developed. This process systematizes and complements the existing evaluation and processes identified above.
1. B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement.
The Annual Strategic Priorities/Initiatives which are based on the Strategic Plan use data from the community survey, the CCSSE report, the Fact Book results, the Diversity Plan, (future) Program Review documents, This process is done each _ by a group consisting of . These priorities are then distributed by _ to.
In 2008 the college brought in George Copa to lead a cross campus committee through the an evaluation and planning process for an integrated Student Services, E-Learning, and Library building. This process used a technique that built a shared vision for the building upon the shared values of the staff, community and students. This process will be used to help the institution create ownership of the results and give a more comprehensive plan for others to implement. Strengths:
· The College has or is developing procedures to evaluate achievement of institutional goals at the program/service level.
The college-wide ability rubrics, the department/program assessment plans, the program review are all examples of current tools. These pieces are clearly visible and do provide information about the College's achievement of its goal.
· The President’s Staff is priority driven.
In place are strong administrative teams at the President’s Staff and Division Dean level who make decisions based on the College priorities (does this feel like a strength already noted in I.A?)
· Institutional research is used to evaluate and to inform planning.
The Office of Institutional research gathers and provides data to give direction to planning and resource allocation.
· Increased involvement of College staff in planning.
Committees and councils dedicated to planning and recommending action at the college level are representative of a variety of departments and programs. Processes and recommendations made by such committees are shared campus-wide.
Weaknesses:
· We do not have a visible comprehensive plan to evaluate the College's achievement of Mission and Goals.
The mission seems to broad to evaluate and the number of objectives and strategies too many to consistently evaluate.
· Progress reports of core and strategic indicators that go to the Board are not shared with the community.
Top-tier administrators are well informed but staff, faculty and community members are not given these reports.
· Communication internally and externally is not systematic or always effective.
In addition to Board and President’s Staff reports not always readily available, communication with the community is funneled through College Relations and intentionally not done by staff and faculty in other areas of the College.
Recommendations:
· Revise the College Mission, Goals, & Strategies
· Develop a comprehensive plan to evaluate and communicate the College’s achievement of goals to both internal and external communities.
Improve external communications to the community.
[i] Nancy’s Operating Budget Process – Fiscal Year 2007-2008 documents
1.A.1 The current mission statement and strategic plan emerged from a Strategic Planning process that included forty representatives from all service and program areas on both Mottman and Hawks Prairie campuses, including students, faculty, staff and the Board of Trustees http://inside.spscc.ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Strategic%20Planning. It was launched in a two-day retreat held at Hawks Prairie on May 9 and 10, 2007. A smaller group met during the next two months to develop a focused, prioritized plan to direct the future work of the College. College groups/forums provided input into the process of identifying the College’s values. In June a fairly complete draft was published for review by the college community. It was revised over the summer and presented again during in Fall 2007 to the college community. On Dec. 13 the final draft was presented to the Board for its first reading and adoption. Then beginning mid-Dec. strategy teams were formed to identify initiatives, attach new or existing measures to objectives, and establish baselines in ensure accountability and efficiency.
· Defined the mission
· Considered and prioritized multiple objectives
· Generated the list of shared values that informed the priority of the objectives
· Found consensus evident in the current SP
There were representatives from the community and local institutions present at some stages of the strategic planning process, and the Plan was presented to the community in the Spring 2008 (p5) issue of Soundings~ The Magazine of South Puget Sound Community College. The current plan will be reexamined during the 2009-2010 academic year according to the College’s three-year review cycle.
The mission and values are well understood by the members of the President’s Staff; however, they are less well understood by many in the wider College community with some exceptions. Staff and faculty who request professional development funds, equipment or staff positions or who serve on decision-making committees such as the Equipment Budget Committee and College Council build their rationale or make their decisions based upon the strategic plan.
1.A.2 The mission, goals and objectives are published in the college catalog (08-09 College Catalog 4), and on the College website, the mission and values are published on the “Welcome to South Puget Sound” page and the entire Strategic Plan is published on the Administration page.
1.A.3 Progress toward accomplishing the College’s mission and goals is documented through reports to the Board of Trustees (as stated in the Spring 2009 Soundings) and made public piecemeal to the campus community through all staff meetings, to the campus community and the community-at-large in the fall “State of the College” report, and to some portions of the community at large through Soundings that is distributed to those who donate to the college. Other specific reports—such as the report on the College’s recycling and composting efforts—are distributed through campus e-mails and reports in the campus newsletter The Wave.
1.A.4 Goals are determined consistent with the institution’s mission and its resources - human, physical, and financial. College's goals -- student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability -- are consistent with its mission "engaging our community in learning . . . for life" and values that state South Puget Sound Community College . . .
The College's goals are consistent with its resources.
- Human Resources: Hiring (http://inside.spscc.ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Hiring_Process/Hiring%20Task%20Force%20(Original%20Recommendations.pdf); http://inside.spscc.ctc.edu/Human_Resources/forms/Screening%20Committee%20Procedure%20Handbook%201.2008.pdf), staffing and opportunity for professional development support student-centeredness and College effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability. Fulltime faculty prioritization process and scoring rubrics are tied to and consistent with objectives, strategic plan and Strategic Enrollment Management plan (http://inside.spscc.ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Accreditation/Resource%20Room/index.html). Scoring is a holistic ranking of requests. Process is not data-driven.
- Physical Resources: Grounds, buildings, building utilization and levels of maintenance support student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability (http://inside.spscc.ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Accreditation/Resource%20Room/SPSCC%20Master%20Plan%20-FINAL-%20December%202007.pdf). Scheduling policy of classes first--other requests not until 10th class day reveals student-centeredness.
- Financial Resources: Financial resources and resource allocation processes support student-centeredness and college effectiveness, efficiency and fiscal accountability (http://www.spscc.ctc.edu/about/budget/pdf/Dec-08-college-council-minutes.pdf, http://www.spscc.ctc.edu/about/budget/pdf/Jan-09-college-council-minutes.pdf ). Equipment prioritization process is tied to and consistent with goals and tied to mission/goals/strategies, and the results of criteria-based scores are recorded. Transparency offers assurance that process is consistent with college goals.
The strategies outlined in Strategic Plan connect the mission/goals to the resources.1.A.5 The interviews with President Pumphrey and all of the VP's made clear that the mission and goals (objectives/strategies) are giving direction to the senior administration. All spoke of the annual strategic priorities as drivers of their work and regular meetings as feedback sessions, and they spoke of tying the work of their service or program areas to these priorities. There is ample evidence that this is the case especially in decision-making committees and councils:
1. Respond to the increasing demand for online and hybrid offerings
2. Implement systematic academic assessment that evaluates student learning outcomes in major program areas and in general education (add link to library’s accreditation web page when available)
3. Develop and implement a strategic enrollment management plan)
4. Address community and business environmental changes through dynamic planning
5. Systematically assess and improve processes and procedures
6. Develop and implement a marketing plan
7. Design and implement a staffing model that supports efficient and accessible operations.
8. Implement a systematic instructional program review process that integrates academic assessment and planning and influences resource allocation.
What is less certain is the extent to which knowledge of these priorities filters down the hierarchy. Here we need to provide information that suggests the lack of “widely understood” knowledge.
1.A.6 The College’s public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution.
· Participation in community organizations and events: College classified staff, faculty and administrators are involved in a wide range of charitable and service organizations.
· College-sponsored or college-partnered activities: Expanding your Horizons, Latino Youth Summit, parenting lecture series
· College services to the community: Small Business Council, Dental Clinic, Fresh Measures??
· Charitable contributions: Combined Fund Drive
· Art Gallery Space
1.A.7 During the 2008-2009 academic year the College in the person of the Vice President for Instruction sought approval from the Commission on two occasions: to offer an Associate of Arts degree entirely online and to rename the professional/technical degrees Associate of Applied Science (AAS or AAS-T).
Analysis
Strengths: informed sense of direction
Strong upper management shares a clear vision of the mission and goals of the college. They work together well as a team and use this vision to direct the work of those in their different areas of the College.
· VP for Instruction uses the mission and goals to drive the work of the academic deans and directors and the various committees and councils that she chairs;
· Dr. Rhonda Coats uses the Strategic Plan to guide the work of Student Services;
· Clearly the VP for Administration has a clear vision and uses it to manage the financial resource of the College and to direct the work of the services
Leading by example informed by a clear vision is good but insufficient.
Use data to drive decisions (IR-Darby); involve more people in the decision-making processes
Another strength is staff/faculty committed to a general mission of community colleges and this College, inspired by good will and
Weaknesses:
· Mission & goals posted in offices around campus are out of date.
· Mission & goals missing from Student Programs webpages
· Communication to staff and the community at large
o Stated so generally that connecting specific goals or strategies to the mission is difficult.
o Values apparent but not clear how they inform the goals and strategies.
o Program/service area planning is not specifically tied to SP
o Reports of progress are data driven but not connected from SP
o
o —references & reports not always clearly tied to the SP
o Lacks specifics of the application of those principles or reports of the progress toward the goals.
o Not readily available to College community at large.
o Not always recognizable.
· A general vision of the goals of the college is not adequate to unify the College in its efforts.
· The College community lacks information about the specific strategic priorities and doesn’t recognize reports of progress when they are communicated.
Recommendations: post the plan and be sure that it is apparent around campus: documents, postings, etc.
Explicitly communicate specifics about the plan and the progress to all stakeholders.
Make it recognizable.
Present it regularly (on an annual basic: Fall these are our annual priorities; Winter this is our progress toward the goal; spring here’s how we’re doing and what we’ll do next.
Continue to integrate the SP in all of the college
· needs to be informed about the annual strategic priorities and the progress toward them.
1.B.1 The College uses comparative data( achievements of meeting goals/deadline) and reviews these regularly. Do we have a definition of the evaluation processes? it's kind of a new process or expectation. Evaluation process is more data-driven, and data is more appropriate to the objective or goal. How were these developed? the program review were developed with a task force; true too the the equipment prioritization task force; part of the process is an annual critique
The College defines its evaluation and planning processes clearly. This is true of the evaluations of personnel at the college. (student, peer, evaluations).
However, the process of evaluating programs and services is under way, and there is current conversation about the evaluation of our College processes.
· Online classes –both the technology and the instruction—are in the queue for a more clearly defined process. ELearning evaluation will be built into all of the online classes.
The College defines its planning processes clearly.
· This was true of the previous strategic plan and is under development for the next plan. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan.
· It planned it budget reduction, capital improvements, the large equipment prioritization and the fulltime faculty prioritization process clearly. This is also true for the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan. The planning process for the business office ??? is it clearly defined?
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help indicate the extent to which the College is meeting its goals.
The President’s Staff developed Annual Strategic Priorities to focus the College’s efforts on eight of its identified strategies and increase its accountability. These eight priorities are assigned to the vice presidents for implementation, and the progress toward achievement is reported regularly in staff meetings. Here we should refer to the annual strategic priorities, identify how they were chosen, and how the progress was reported in the staff meetings.
1.B.2 The institution engages in systematic planning for, and evaluation of, its activities, including teaching, research, and public service consistent with institutional mission and goals.
The College uses the mission (as it is) and goals intentionally in its planning and evaluation of activities. It engages on a fairly regular basis, though this is most true of the Annual Strategic Priorities. The systematic planning and evaluation is evident in most areas of the College in response to problems. The program review is an effort to systematize and make inclusive this process.
The college, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service Review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process will be conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a 3 year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the strategic plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community.
Teaching –Class scheduling is planned and evaluated systematically based upon its mission and goals.
Evaluation of the faculty—adjunct & fulltime—using multiple indices.
Strategic Enrollment Management Plan regularly reviews student enrollment patterns within the context of the service area’s diverse communities.
CCSE survey of student engagements fits here.
Graduate & Employer Surveys
Instructional Council and ARC systematically plan and evaluate activities.
Capital Facilities Master Plan reviews facility requests and design on the goals of student centeredness and effective, efficient, and fiscally accountable operations.
IT Strategic Plan is consistent with the mission and goals, but not yet evaluated.
Nascent Program Review is systematic and used for planning and evaluation of all area of the College.
Research is not a priority of the College, but the small research projects in anthropology and psychology were approved as consistent with the mission and goals. Speak briefly about Dale’s work at the wet site and current Psychology research project.
Some public service activities are evaluated based upon goals and mission, but the system or overview of public service may not be systematically planned for or evaluated. We need to know more about what we do or choose not to do for public service.
Operations:
· Strategic planning accompanies operational and budget planning at the executive, mid-management and unit level where the levels mutually inform and support one another.
· To better align planning and budgeting, the college’s two year planning cycle parallels the legislative biennial budgeting cycle.
· Institutional priorities provide direction to operational planning. Figure xx illustrates the planning process and input from various constituents. (How/why did we get to the current planning process?) (example of Operational/Budget development process and/or plans?)
Evidence that demonstrates the planning, analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes such as
· College mission
· College goals
· Analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes/planning
o studies of alumni and former students
o studies regarding effectiveness of programs and their graduates
o studies that indicate degree of success in placing graduates
o pre- and post-test comparisons of student knowledge, skills, and abilities
o surveys of satisfaction - students, alumni, and employees
1.B.3 The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties. The governance system at SPSCC supports the college’s mission, values, strategic directions and learning outcomes. The stakeholders (Board of Trustees, students, classified staff, faculty and the exempt /administrative staff members) have a role to play in the college’s governance system.
The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituent group. (Coats) “The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.”
More members of the staff are involved in the College’s decision-making processes. (here we need some before/after examples, data as evidence). The equipment and faculty hiring prioritization committees are examples of this improvement.
The College’s values of operating in an atmosphere of accountability and respect, accepting responsibilities to the communities we serve, and fostering inclusiveness drive the participatory nature of its planning. This is evident in the Enrollment Management Team, the Assessment & Research Councils, the development of the Program Review process, etc.
· college-wide planning—budget reduction; equipment; development of program review process & documents—staff from all areas of the college
· open forums—all staff
· strategic planning—board members and students and community reps.
·
The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students and other interested parties.
Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory.
1.B.4
The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
Historical info- shift 4 years ago from a formula-driven budgeting process to a process driven by institutional prioritization.
The College has been using the results of evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
· This is evident in the 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard Two that outlines how the institution has used the results of _ and _ to increase online offerings and support and to establish the rationale for large equipment purchases and fulltime faculty hiring prioritization.
· The single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies.
· Student Services uses the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop its action plans and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid. The 2008 CCSSE indicated that those services had improved and inspired Student Services to continue that level of service.
· College-wide program/service review will inform prioritization of hiring and equipment
· What about the evaluation of college/classroom climate incidences and progress toward respect for diversity
Prior 2009-2010 these efforts had been systematic in that they are planned and scheduled, but are not College wide. To achieve the system-wide use of the evaluation data and planning activities, the College has instituted and implemented a Program and Service Review process that will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus, and the results will be used to influence allocation and improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process was conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified. Then a schedule based on a three-year review cycle was developed.
This process systematizes and complements the existing evaluation and processes identified above.
1. B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement.
Annual Strategic Priorities/Initiatives
· VP’s and Presidents staff function around these priorities
· Institutional priorities based on
o Strategic plan and goals and college objectives
o Accreditation reports
o Data from the community survey
o Diversity plan [i]
· Example of using evaluation/planning
o George Copa’s work in setting the foundation for One Stop Student Services & SEM
1.B.6 The institution provides the necessary resources for effective evaluation and planning processes.
The College has been very fiscally supportive of all institutional research efforts. Since Feb. 2007 the College’s funding for Institutional Research has supported one fulltime position and supplies, travel, etc. However, those resources were not adequate to support the research necessary for overall institutional evaluation. To provide more information for evaluation and planning, the College has allocated additional funds to purchase survey instruments, materials and software (CCSSE, Graduate Survey, etc.). In addition, the College has provided funds for the professional development of the institutional researcher and hired support staff.
1.B.7 The institution’s research is integrated with and supportive of institutional evaluation and planning.
Institutional research is entirely integrated with evaluation and planning. IR’s purpose is to look for the answers to the questions “how are we doing” and “how could we be doing things better.”
IR is the primary data source for information about the ongoing operation of the college, and that data has been used in multiple ways for evaluation and planning. The following chart offers examples.
· Determine “health” of the College
· Inform the Board of Trustees, College community and the report to the public
· Customer satisfaction
· Plan parking on Mottman campus
· Measure progress annually
· Track progress on annual strategic priorities
1.B.8 The institution systematically reviews its institutional research efforts, IR evaluation processes, and its planning activities to document their effectiveness.
The data and reports from Institutional Research are reviewed regularly as a result of presentations to the College’s many stakeholders: Master Planning Group, Strategic Enrollment Management Core Oversight Group, Board of Trustees, Presidents Staff, Assessment and Research Council, Instructional Programs. Furthermore, the personnel in the office undergo regular exempt and classified staff evaluations using the standard forms.
The College-wide Program/Service Area Review documents the effectiveness of IR’s research, evaluation and planning.
1.B.9 The institution uses information from its planning and evaluation processes to communicate evidence of institutional effectiveness to its public.
· The College community receives evidence of institutional effectiveness in an annual state of the college address and through e-mailed communiqués and all-staff meetings. These communications include information from the College’s planning and evaluation processes. However, the information may not be recognized as evidence of institutional progress.
o Fact book available to the college community
· Because more people are involved, more members of the staff understand.
· There is an overall increase in College staff’s understanding of the strategic plan and reports of progress of institutional effectiveness because more members of the College staff are involved in the decision-making processes, councils and committees that tie resource allocation to the strategic plan.
· General public only generally aware of the College – its mission, goals and opportunities for the communities
· College Council’s new formation provides college-wide oversight, planning and communication of information to the College community.
· The closer you are to the work-decision making-resource allocation that goes on on campus, the more likely you are to understand the strategic plan and recognize the reports of institutional progress.
· External communications: Soundings published and sent to Foundation board members, retired faculty and staff, foundation donors in the last five years and in-kind donors in the last five years, “friends” of the foundation in last five years (at a particular donor level), legislators, lifetime and endowed scholarship donors, the governor, CTC presidents and communication directors, state board staff, current and former trustees, local diversity leasers, local officials, politicians, schools and school counselors, chamber leaders, K-12 superintendents in district, higher education leaders, advisory committee members, sister college presidents, state agency heads, college staff and faculty. 2008 mailing was 3, 250. Spring 2009 edition contained a ten-year longitudinal report.
· Internal communications: The Wave and The Sounds
Analysis:
Strengths: We do have procedures in place or in the works to evaluate this achievement. Pieces are in place or in the works: the college-wide ability rubrics, the department/program assessment plans, the program review. These pieces are clearly visible and do provide information about the College's achievement of its goal.
· Commonly held values & expectations
· President’s staff is priority driven
· Strong administrative teams at the President’s Staff and Division Dean level
· Increased involvement of College staff in decision-making processes. & resulting increase in understanding of strategic plan and progress toward objectives.
· Some opportunities to communicate with the community are realized in the processes of Student Service work of outreach and recruitment and in College staff involvement in community groups.
Challenges:
· We do have procedures in place or in the works to evaluate this achievement. But not an overall (comprehensive) plan to evaluate the College's achievement of goals.
· Too broad a mission
· Too many objectives & strategies
· Still limits to college-wide understanding of strategic plan and how it drives us
· Haphazard Dissemination of current mission & goals to all parts of the College community
· Progress reports of core and strategic indicators that go to the board are not shared with the community
· Communications with the community is funneled through College Relations and intentionally not done by folks in other areas of the College.
· Communication is haphazard
· Opportunities for growth with technology
Recommendations: laying out the process for evaluating achievement.
Revise Mission, Goals, Strategies
· Narrow the focus of the mission in the second round of strategic planning
· Fine-tune the objectives and strategies using the new accreditation standards
· Post the current mission and goals to all parts of the College community
Improve communications: Develop a comprehensive plan to evaluate and communicate the College’s achievement of goals to both internal and external communities.
Internal communications
o Share the progress reports of the core and strategic indicators with the community
o Communicate how the College Council processes and decisions are informed by the strategic plan and publish the decisions and impact of the decisions.
o Increase understanding of SP and progress toward its achievement by involving more of the college community at an appropriate level of decision-making
o Give wider access to the content of Board study sessions to the college community before the meeting
o Supplement the on-campus annual progress report with quarterly updates—easily accessible on the College intranet
o Post informative reports to the Board on the website
External communications
o Increase the visibility of the College’s strategic plan
o Increase the specificity of the reports to the community on the strategic plan and progress towards its goals
o Include in the progress reports to the community the context of the strategic plan
o Reconsider more direct avenues of communication with the community appropriate to some areas of the College
(1). Questions about Soundings., email response from Dean of College Relations. document xxxx
_
From THIS POINT THESE ARE NOTES FROM FIRST DRAFT:
1.A Mission and Goals The institution’s mission and goals define the institution, including its educational activities, its student body, and its role within the higher education community. The evaluation proceeds from the institution’s own definition of its mission and goals. Such evaluation is to determine the extent to which the mission and goals are achieved and are consistent with the Commission’s Eligibility Requirements and standards for accreditation.
1.A.1 The institution’s mission and goals derive from, or are widely understood by, the campus community, are adopted by the governing board, and are periodically reexamined.
The college's mission and goals were derived from a process during which representatives from all service and departmental areas on both Mottman and Hawk's Prairie campuses(http://inside.spscc.ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Strategic%20Planning ) participated.The Board of Trustees were also highly involved in the planning process //http://inside,spscc,ctc.edu/President/desk_files/Trustees/minutes/Archives/2007.(**Note**//: need the DATE of this-not in bibliography))
Mission and goals are derived from the Strategic Planning Process bringing together inclusive representation from from the college community, including the Board of Trustees. (See the representation of the task force's membership)
Mission and goals were adopted by the Board of Trustees (minutes of the board meeting-date needed).
Mission and goals (and objectives) are examined periodically on a three-year cycle. The current strategic plan is in effect from 2007 to 2010. (Here we can include the dates of the last two strategic planning sessions and the date of the next two.
Mission and goals (and objectives) are "widely understood by the campus community." In spite of the "or" in 1A1, we should check the understanding of the mission and goals in the campus community. Our interviews the the VP's and President Pumphrey reveals that the senior administrators clearly understand and are guided by the Strategic Plan. We can also spotcheck understanding by staff members whose professional development, staff and equipment requests are required to be linked to the strategic plan. That might be enough of a sign to demonstrate "widely understood," or we could do a survey to check this understanding more broadly. One situation exists now: a previously adopted Mission/Goals statement is posted in public spaces and individual offices around the campuses and can be found in brief on staff name tags.
+
Strengths are: directly derived from goals, particularly at the President’s staff level (Discussion that it should be “and” not “or” in “derive from or are widely understood by,”)
Challenge/Weakness is: mission and goals not widely understood. Need a survey to determine this. While Soundings goes out to members of the community through the Foundation college goals are not widely known in the community.
1.A.2
The mission, as adopted by the governing board, appears in appropriate institutional publications, including the catalog.
The mission of the college appears on its web site (http://www.spscc.ctc.edu/about/mission-values.html), in Soundings (a publication for college donors), and in the college catalogs. (check on Student gov't publications?)
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Strengths: Yes, generally true.
Weakness: The most current, updated, mission statement needs to be distributed again.
Recommendation: The mission statement needs more visibility campus-wide. More needs to be done to make sure outdated mission statements(which are prevalent) need to be destroyed and replaced with the current one. Name tags and other identifying clothing should bear the college's mission statement. The mission statement should appear on the Student Government web page.
1.A.3 Progress in accomplishing the institution’s mission and goals is documented and made public.
Progress twoard mission/goals -- through the strategic plan-- is documented and mostly (I am not happy with this word) made public. However, it is possible that many in the campus community don't recognize the information shared as reports of this progress. (See 1A5)
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Strength: Depends on what public: the administration is strong and the admin group understands the mission & goals internally.
Weakness: There is a disconnect as to how mission and goals are communicated to the public, and sometimes the staff/faculty as SPSCC too.
Our info is not really made public. How is the Report to the Community published and where does it appear?
Recommendation: Find a way to help the college community know how we are accomplishing our mission and goals. Become more obvious off-campus, help the college community recognize how the school is accomplishing mission and goals and fulfilling the strategic plan. Increase campus awareness overall.
- President's "State of the College" report is conducted each fall, and is open to all staff and faculty as well as the public.
- The _ issues of The Soundings magazine featured the president's report to the community on the institution's accomplishments of its mission and goals in
(mm)*
(yy).
1.A.4 Goals are determined consistent with the institution’s mission and its resources - human, physical, and financial.
College's goals -- student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability -- are consistent with its mission "engaging our communnity in learning . . . for life" and values that state South Puget Sound CC . . .
The College's goals are consistent with its resources.
- Human Resources: Hiring, staffing and opportunityfor professional development support student-centeredness and College effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountability. Fulltime faculty prioritization process and scoring rubrics are tied to and consistent with objectives, strategic plan and Strategic Enrollment Management plan. Scoring is a holistic ranking of requests. Process is not data-driven.
- Physical Resources: Grounds, buildings, building utilization and levels of maintenance support student-centeredness and effectiveness, efficiency, and fiscal accountabilit. Scheduling policy of classes first--other requests not until 10th class day reveals student-centeredness.
- Financial Resources: Financial resources and resource allocation processes support student-centeredness and college efffectiveness, efficiency and fiscal accountability. Equipment prioritization process is tied to and consistent with goals and tied to mission/goals;strategies, and the results of criteria-based scores are recorded. Transparency offers assurance that process is consistent with college goals.
The strategies outlined in Strategic Plan connect the mission/goals to the resources.+
Strengths: Yes, the college is accomplishing this generally
Weaknesses: Language of the mission statement is so general that it’s difficult to connect specific goals to it. It is difficult to see that goals are directly connected more to values and values to the mission statement.
Recommendations: Integrate values into the mission statement.
(Note: Combine 1.A.4 & 1.A.5)
1.A.5 The institution’s mission and goals give direction to all its educational activities, to its admission policies, selection of faculty, allocation of resources, and to planning.
- The college's mission and goacls give direction to educational activities: increase online/hybrid course offerings is one strategy on strategic plan and an annual strategic priority.
- College's mission and goals give direction to its admission policies:
- College's mission and goals give direction to its selection of faculty: holistic ranking of fulltime faculty requests rather than ranking by criteria does not reveal that mission/goals give direction to prioritization of faculty positions.
- College's mission and goals give direction to its allocation of resources: Equipment prioritization task force with a criteria-based ranking process reveals that mission/goals give direction to prioritization. College Council's budget reduction process with a criteria-based ranking process reveals that mission/goals (core mission here) gave direction to reductions.
- College's mission and goals give direction to its planning:
+Analysis and Appraisal
The interviews with President Pumphrey and all of the VP's made clear that the mission and goals (objectives/strategies) are giving direction to the senior administration. All spoke of the annual strategic priorities as drivers of their work and regular feedback sessions in their weekly (?) meetings. What we are less certain of is the extent to which knowledge of these priorities filters down the hierarchy. We might wish to include questions about this in a college-wide survey.
1.A.6
Public service is consistent with the educational mission and goals of the institution. (Public service=anything thatwe do that is not a part of the core mission.)
- College personnels' service in the community: service group memberships, board memberships, etc.
- Latino Youth Summit? (Clearly consistent with mission/goals, but we're uncertain if the participants' registration through Community Education would qualify it as a part of the core mission.)
- Expanding your Horizons
- Individual Art Shows (evidence--no-cost application for indiviidual shows)
- Complimentary Tickets/Pizza Feeds for high schooldrama students and their teachers
The institution reviews with the Commission, contemplated changes that would alter its mission, autonomy, ownership or locus of control, or its intention to offer a degree at a higher level than is included in its present accreditation, or other changes in accordance with //Policy A-2 //Substantive Change////.A
1.A.7
Two recent contemplated changes have been reviewed with the Commission:
- renaming the professional/technical degrees Associate of Applied Sciences (AAS or AAS-T)
- offering an Associate of ARts fully online.
We have correspondence for both of these reviews.+
Strength: Yes, mostly true. Moving ATA to AAS, and AA degree offered online.
Weakenesses
Recomendations
1.B- Planning and Effectiveness
The institution engages in ongoing planning to achieve its mission and goals. It also evaluates how well, and in what ways, it is accomplishing its mission and goals and uses the results for broadbased, continuous planning and evaluation. Through its planning process, the institution asks questions, seeks answers, analyzes itself, and revises its goals, policies, procedures, and resource allocation.
1.B.1
The institution clearly defines its evaluation and planning processes. It develops and implements procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves institutional goals.
. When evaluating proposals and requests, the process is communicated to decision-makers and those affected. For example the evaluation of budget reduction strategies, large equipment prioritization lists, fulltime faculty hiring requests (??) all include criteria reflective of the College’s Strategic Plan.
The College uses a variety of procedures to evaluate the extent to which it achieves Institutional Goals including internal and external surveys, reports, assessment processes, and verbal communication. An internal study survey and external scan of the community was conducted in 2006 to assess perceptions and help inform the process of revising the Strategic Plan. The annual Fact Book, reports to the Board and a variety of Status Reports are required documents that help determine the extent to which the College is meeting its goals. A Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) team was developed and includes Core Oversight Groups (COGs) that are responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of different elements of the SEM Plan. Keeping informed through conversations with members of the campus community is also a way of gathering anecdotal information about how well the College is meeting its goals. Listening to students, community members, staff, and faculty helps to determine the extent to which needs are being met. Board meetings and President’s Staff meetings are a way to share areas of progress and opportunity.
President Pumphrey is implementing, next year, a plan to facilitate evaluation and accountability of the College’s progress in meeting its goals. He plans to set eight Annual Strategic Priorities that will provide focus for the year. Each Vice President will be responsible for different Priorities which will facilitate more substantive progress in those areas.
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Strengths
Challenges
1.B.2 The institution engages in systematic planning for, and evaluation of, its activities, including teaching, research, and public service consistent with institutional mission and goals.
The college evaluates services, programs, and curriculum annually through college wide and divisional planning sessions, planning and directional retreats, surveys, and periodic evaluations. During 2007-08 the college formed a representative strategic planning workgroup (list members?) which formulated the South Puget Sound Community College Strategic Plan 2007-2010 identifying Goals, objectives and strategies. (insert or append). (Briefly discuss key goals and strategies underway; how have activities accomplished some of these goals?) The strategic plan and goals were distributed throughout the college and community for review and included college wide meetings (dates and feedback summary?). An Institutional Researcher was hired in 2008(?) to facilitate research and data mining. (explain some achievements) The SBCTC provides system wide and institutional data. (How is this used?) Divisions and department plans must tie goals to college goals. (example?)
Strategic planning accompanies operational and budget planning at the executive, mid-management and unit level where the levels mutually inform and support one another. To better align planning and budgeting, the college’s two year planning cycle parallels the legislative biennial budgeting cycle. Institutional priorities provide direction to operational planning and support a mutual planning cycle. Figure xx illustrates the planning process and input from various constituents. (How/why did we get to the current planning process?) (example of Operational/Budget development process and/or plans?) The college also completed an Instructional reorganization plan, Student Services Enrollment Strategic Plan, a Facilities Master Plan, and an IT Strategic Plan. (Copy of major goals?) Discuss representative process and outcomes?
The college has recently completed student surveys about student services and instructional studies. (include highlights). Surveys of employee engagement and development were completed (year) and discussed in classified and administrative staff meetings (dates) with results highlighting (brief list). Unit/program service level surveys are underway and may indicate….. (What can be said about these). The unit/program assessment process incorporated college goals and measurable objectives to evaluate and improve the college’s effectiveness and will provide quantitative data supporting specific success indicators (such as….). The college process to obtain feedback from the general community includes….
Instructional programs build curriculum profiles and goals at the individual course, department, and institutional level. Institutional, department, and course learning outcomes are established, updated annually, and tied to the college strategic plan. Each faculty member is evaluated annually as noted in the section on Standard 4. These evaluations include student evaluation of course and performance evaluations. Each administrator’s performance is evaluated every two years by their supervisor. On “some cycle”? every faculty member undergoes a comprehensive evaluation of their teaching, professional development, and service. Guidelines on evaluation, promotion and tenure can be found in polices ….? Results briefly indicate….
Evidence that demonstrates the planning, analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes such as
· College mission
· College goals
· Analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes/planning
o studies of alumni and former students
o studies regarding effectiveness of programs and their graduates
o studies that indicate degree of success in placing graduates
o pre- and post-test comparisons of student knowledge, skills, and abilities
o surveys of satisfaction - students, alumni, and employees
Strengths
Weaknesses
Remediation/Action plans
- Communication
- Participation
- Evaluation
- +
Strength: Yes, generally but needs to be clearer and need more evidence of it. (See Julians write-up)1.B.3 The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students, and other interested parties.
The planning process is participatory involving constituencies appropriate to the institution such as board members, administrators, faculty, staff, students and other interested parties.
The college has developed a system-wide planning process that links strategic planning, insititutional effectiveness, and educational assessment. The Strategic Planning process has a broad scope and coordination of efforts. In 2007? 2008? The strategic planning process was redesigned. The college completed a comprehensive review (see page 37 of the Chemeketa CC planning and effectiveness statement. Possibly compare SPSCC situation to that one.)
The Enrollment Management Team consists of representatives from student services, instruction, faculty, administrative services and human resources. The Strategic Enrollment Management Team will develop an enrollment plan that will determine, within the academic context of the college, the size and mix of the student body. The enrollment management plan is an active component of the college’s Strategic Plan.
The Assessment & Research Council is made up of vice presidents (2), division and department deans (7), directors (2), faculty (11), Hawks Prairie representative and student representation (1).
Governance Model: The governance system at SPSCC supports the college’s mission, values, strategic directions and learning outcomes. The stakeholders (Board of Trustees, students, classified staff, faculty and the exempt /administrative staff members) have a role to play in the college’s governance system. The College Council is the major college planning and policy recommending body. The Council’s membership is comprised of vice presidents, classified staff, classified union representative, faculty senate representative, student government representative, institutional researcher, admin/exempt staff representatives, members-at-large, and Ex Officio advisors: chief human resources officer and director of budgeting services. Council representatives are expected to act as liaisons to their respective constituent group. (Coats) “The new formation of the College Council will provide college-wide oversight and communication of information.”
Reading through the membership of the college’s councils, committees and boards it is apparent that the planning process is participatory.
1.B.4 The institution uses the results of its systematic evaluation activities and ongoing planning processes to influence resource allocation and to improve its instructional programs, institutional services, and activities.
The college, through the Assessment and Research Council, is in the process of instituting a Program and Service review process that will tie directly to the overall mission of the college. This process will provide for a systematic evaluation and planning tool for the entire campus and the results will be used to influence allocation, improve instructional programs, services and activities. The pilot of the review process will be conducted in Summer 2009, evaluated and modified, then a schedule developed for program and services to follow. The schedule will be based on a 3 year cycle. This process will complement the existing Equipment Purchasing process which links equipment needs directly to how it relates to the strategic plan and is evaluated by a cross representation of the campus community.
Darby
The main place where you can find very specific references to this idea is actually our 2008 Interim Report to the Commission on Standard 2. I am attaching a copy and if you look on page 11 the last paragraph through the end of that general recommendation outlines how the institution has used the results of evaluations and strategic processes for resource allocation and planning. Some specific examples include increasing online offerings and support, the large equipment process, and the full-time faculty hiring process. I know you are already aware of these activities in general, but this document gives you more information about how they all relate to resources and planning. The other document that I am attached is the budget reduction scoring rubric that the College Council used to evaluate the proposed strategies. This is probably the single best example of the college using a systematic evaluation process and following our strategic priorities to influence planning and resource allocation.
Dorna-
Strategic initiatives within both the strategic plan and the strategic enrollment plan as a backdrop for prioritizing new f/t faculty hires. Each year for the past three years – by the time the self-study report goes to print it will be four years – a group of faculty and deans review proposals the deans have developed to provide the rationale as to why they are requesting consideration for XX f/t, tenure track faculty position. This year deans were required to identify what initials/goal in the S/P or S/E/M plan supported the position being requested. (FYI I believe this is covered in Standard 4 as well.)
Dave Kohler – business office - allocation
Rhonda - In Student Services we use the assessment/survey results and the SEM plan to develop our action and budget requests. For example, the 2005 CCSSE results suggested that students needed more career information, tutoring, and financial aid. Student Services put forth a budget request for and received funding for a Career Services part-time position, SMARTHINKING, and an additional staff person to help with financial aid awarding. In the 2008 CCSSE those results improved and we have maintained those services.
_
Strength:
Weakness: Lack of Program Review (productivity, staffing, equipment, mission, etc.) a weakness. Program review information could be used to define and refine our processes. It’s difficult to know if we are adding/dropping right classes, etc. The economy is affecting how we assess our programs and how much is spent. More systematic, create a bigger picture to serve the entire school.
1.B.5 The institution integrates its evaluation and planning processes to identify institutional priorities for improvement.
In what ways is your research integrated with institutional evaluation and planning? In what ways does it support evaluation and planning?
“Integrate” is an interesting word choice, because it suggests that there is research going on that is aside from institutional evaluation and planning, which is not the case. IR’s purpose is to always be looking for the answers to the questions “how are we doing’ and “how could we be doing things better.” “Support” is essentially the same thing in that IR is the primary data source for information about the ongoing operation of the college, and that data has been used in multiple ways for evaluation and planning. Below are some examples of groups/projects that have utilized IR data, the type of data they used, and how it was used:
· Master Planning: Used student enrollment data to plan for the size of the new campus as well as true parking needs on the main campus
· Strategic Enrollment Management Plan Core Oversight Group: Used enrollment, retention, completion, basic skills, and student engagement data to determine which demographic groups needed focus and set goals. Used baseline data to initiate goals and measured progress one year later.
· Strategic Planning: Assisted in developing the plan as a campus community member and have tracked progress on strategic goals using various data
· Core Indicator Summary: Institutional indicators that give a high level picture of the historic and current health of the institution. Presented once a year to the Board of Trustees
· Fact Book: Historical data about a large number of common indicators. Created once a year and provided to the campus community and BOT for their use in their own activities and planning.
· Assessment Guideline: This required quite a bit of research and was presented to ARC and the faculty to assist them in developing a common framework for assessment on our campus. The principles were applied to our assessment process, and the “measure” was the commendation we received from our interim accreditation evaluator about how we now seem to have a culture of assessment and better process.
· Exit Exam Research: This was a study of the effectiveness of the MAPP exam. This combined with evidence from enrollment services was presented to ARC, and shortly after the recommendation was made to IC to discontinue it as a graduation requirement.
· Surveys: IR has helped multiple groups revise, develop, and administer surveys for their own assessment and planning purposes (IT, Student Senate, Sustainability Committee just to name a few)
· Accreditation Support: Surveys and other large amounts of data have been provided in support of the self study
· Program Review: IR will contribute to this important evaluation and planning exercise by providing a common data set to all programs
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Strength: This is accomplished at the presidential staff level.
Recommendation: Focus on Program Review – overseen by College Council.
1.B.6 The institution provides the necessary resources for effective evaluation and planning processes.
There has essentially been two processes for IR when it comes to resource allocation. First, I have my budget which includes all the usual stuff such as supplies and travel funds. This generally speaking is quite small, but adequate for those specific items. But, because it is small it has not been adequate to support the greater more high level efforts that are necessary for overall institutional evaluation, and that is where the second process comes in.
These additional efforts are things like the CCSSE survey (about $6,000) and the materials and software required for the Graduate Survey ($200/ year for Survey Monkey plus printing and mailing costs for paper version). When I brought forth the importance of these activities to both my supervisor and other administrators there was no hesitation to cover the cost out of other funds. I have also taken full advantage of professional development funds each year for things that directly contribute to my understanding of institutional research and have consequently had a direct impact on my ability to effectively do my job. Additionally, if there has been anything else that I felt was critical but didn’t have the funds within my IR budget to accomplish it my supervisor was always willing to make it work out of the general administrative services budget. The best example of this was the decision to hire a support person for me. That was not initially budgeted into IR’s area so the funds came from administrative services (I think), but then after more discussion the VP for Instruction agreed to pay the salary for that position out of the Assessment Budget. So again, the institution as a whole has been very fiscally supportive of all institutional research efforts.
1.B.7The institution’s research is integrated with and supportive of institutional evaluation and planning.
1.B.8
The institution systematically reviews its institutional research efforts, its evaluation processes, and its planning activities to document their effectiveness.
How has your work been reviewed in the past? How will the Program/Service Area Review change that review?
As IR is a support function for all areas of the college, data and research from IR is “reviewed” each time it is presented to a group. Some examples of IR’s constituencies from the above list are:
· Master Planning Group
· Strategic Enrollment Management Core Oversight Group
· Board of Trustees
· Presidents Staff
· Assessment and Research Council
· Instructional Programs
In addition I went through my regular personnel review this spring where a cross-section of people had an opportunity to critique my work and provide feedback. Program/Service area review will work for IR just like it will for everyone else, and I don’t see anything changing except that the IR office has already started working on our goals based on the service review template, and I believe that the quality of IR’s work and the contribution to the college as a whole will improve as a result of the process.
1.B.9
The institution uses information from its planning and evaluation processes to communicate evidence of institutional effectiveness to its public.
Required Documentation:
1. Official statement of the institutional mission: Indicate how and when it was developed, approved, and communicated to the institution’s constituencies.
2. Evidence that demonstrates the analysis and appraisal of institutional outcomes. Examples may include:
Recommendation: Use the webpage to disseminate more information to improve visibility.
Required Exhibits:
Institutional short term, strategic, or long term plans, including system master plans.
Suggested Materials:
Planning studies, enrollments for the past five years, enrollment projections, program and personnel needs analyses, fund development plans, and other institutional research results.